Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Heroin |
HeroinNoun1. A narcotic that is considered a hard drug; a highly addictive morphine derivative. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Multilingual Slang | Spanish (caballo, jaco). (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Heroin (C21H23NO5 -- diacetylmorphine, diamorphine, junk, horse, or smack) is a white crystalline alkaloid opiate, derived from morphine by acetylation.
History
It was first synthesised in 1874 by C.R.A. Wright, a British chemist working at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, London. He had been experimenting with combining morphine with various acids. He boiled anhydrous morphine alkaloid with acetic anhydride over a stove for several hours and produced a compound that he called tetra acetyl morphine, which we now call diacetylmorphine. The compound was sent to F.M. Pierce of Owens College, Manchester, for analysis. He reported the following to Wright.
Heinrich Dreser (who discovered aspirin), of Bayer in Elberfeld, Germany, noticed that diacetylmorphine was almost 10 times more potent than morphine. Bayer registered heroin (meaning 'heroic treatment' from the German word heroisch) as a trademark. From 1898 through to 1910 it was marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough medicine for children.
- Doses ... were subcutaneously injected into young dogs and rabbits ... with the following general results ... great prostration, fear, and sleepiness speedily following the administration, the eyes being sensitive, and pupils dilated, considerable salivation being produced in dogs, and slight tendency to vomiting in some cases, but no actual emesis. Respiration was at first quickened, but subsequently reduced, and the heart's action was diminished, and rendered irregular. Marked want of coordinating power over the muscular movements, and loss of power in the pelvis and hind limbs, together with a diminution of temperature in the rectum of about 4° [1]
In 1924, the United States' Heroin Act made it illegal to manufacture or possess heroin in that country.
While heroin is inherently a dangerous drug, since it is a central nervous system depressant, it is the lack of available quality information, lack of quality control (few criminal drug dealers meet USP standards in their products), and infected syringes that cause the most trouble for heroin users. The money which can be made in supplying heroin addicts encourages a continuous supply, and the need to finance purchases generates considerable property crime. Critics of drug prohibition contend that since addiction can be treated, primarily by counseling and methadone substitution, most of the suffering surrounding heroin is indirectly caused by prohibition, not by the drug itself.
Production and Trafficking
Heroin is a controlled substance, but traffic is heavy worldwide, with the biggest producer being Afghanistan, which after a ban on poppy growing by the Taliban in 2001 dropped its production by 95% but revived it to record numbers following the US military occupation and fall of the Taliban government. The CIA has been accused to be among the world's biggest drug smugglers [1] as part of its support of assorted groups around the world. Heroin is one of the most profitable illicit drugs since it is compact and easily concealed. At present, opium poppies are mostly grown in the Middle East, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and in Asia, Vietnam, and Indonesia. There is also cultivation of opium poppies in the Sinaloa region of Mexico.
Short and long term effects of heroin
- mental confusion
- euphoria
- slow and shallow respiration
- nausea and vomiting
- spontaneous abortion
- constipation
- AIDS/HIV and hepatitis infections by shared needles
- overdoses (sometimes fatally)
- long-term criminal involvement to support heroin habits
- malnourishment
- skin conditions from uncleanliness (bathing opens the pores and lets the heroin out)
- poisoning from contaminants added to 'cut' the pure heroin to something suited to street use.
Withdrawal symptoms
The withdrawal syndrome from heroin begins within 12 hours of discontinuation of the drug: sweating, malaise, anxiety, depression, general feeling of heaviness, cramp-like pains in the limbs, yawning and lachrymation, sleep difficulties, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, cramps and fever occur. Most addicts also complain of 'itchy blood,' which is very painful.
Cultural Influences
Due to both the dramatic effects of the drug on the consumers life and the widespread use of heroin amongst artists, heroin consumption and addiction has been featured in numerous works of art, ranging from songs to novels. Amongst these are:
- Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
- Waiting for the man by the Velvet Underground
- Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (life story of a German addict)
- Junkie by William S. Burroughs
- Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
- Golden Brown by The Stranglers
- Signed D.C by Love
- Aux enfants de la chance by Serge Gainsbourg
- Hurt by Nine Inch Nails
- Chinese Rocks by Johnny Thunders
- The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll
- Cain's Book by Alexander Trocchi
- Permanent Midnight by Jerry Stahl
See also
- recreational drug use
- Notable Heroin Addicts
External link
- Good Drugs Guide
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Heroin."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| HELP | English | Heroin Emergency Life Project | General |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: HeroinSynonyms: diacetylmorphine (n), horse (n), junk (n), scag (n), shit (n), smack (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Intemperance | Bhang, hashish, marijuana, pot, hemp, grass; opium, cocaine, morphine, heroin; LSD, lysergic acid diethylamide; phencyclidine, angel dust, PCP; barbiturates; amphetamines, speed. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Heroin |
| English words defined with "heroin": clean ♦ heroin addict, heroin addiction ♦ land ♦ methadon, methadone, methadone hydrochloride ♦ shooting gallery. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "heroin": buprenorphine ♦ extreme euphoria ♦ Heroin Dependence ♦ injection drug user, intravenous drug abuser, intravenous drug user ♦ levo, levo-alpha acetylméthadol ♦ pinned pupil ♦ terminal junkie. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Heroin" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Czech (heroin), Danish (heroin, heroine), German (heroin), Hungarian (heroin, junk), Serbo-Croatian (heroin, horse, junk, smack), Swedish (heroin, junk, smack). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | So Heroin Bob was named as such 'cause he was afraid of needles, but you know not just needles, the guy was afraid of drugs too. We couldn't even get him to take a damn asprin (S.L.C. Punk!; writing credit: James Merendino.) It's as if I've taken love heroin, and now I can't ever have it again (Notting Hill; writing credit: Richard Curtis) Then you shouldn't shoot heroin. (Profit; writing credit: John McNamara) I was born addicted to heroin. (White Oleander; writing credit: Mary Agnes Donoghue) Simon, after the riot, you went into severe heroin withdrawal (Oz; writing credit: Pavel Srut) | |
Lyrics | To all the kids with heroin eyes (Salvation; performing artist: The Cranberries) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Heroin (1968) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | The outfit of the heroin addict. / Official photograph issued by the Narcotics Bureau, Hong Kong Police. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | How Much Can Heroin Cost You? : Heroin Screws You Up. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | At First He Was Sure He'd Never Become A Heroin Addict. : Now He's Not Sure He'll Ever Be Anything Else. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Skin Care by Heroin. : Heroin Screws You Up. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | Treasury agents J.W. McDonald (l) and F.E. Walker shovel confiscated heroin blocks into incinerator. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | With regular heroin use, tolerance develops. (references) | |
Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder. (references) | ||
Heroin has also been appearing in more affluent communities. (references) | ||
Children | Vietnam | There were reports that some persons addicted young girls to heroin and forced them to work as prostitutes to earn money for drugs. (references) |
Economic History | Colombia | Colombia is the world's leading supplier of refined cocaine and a growing source for heroin. (references) |
Venezuela | Venezuela is a minor source country for opium poppy and coca but a major transit country for cocaine and heroin. (references) | |
Human Rights | Cyprus | On December 1, 2000, Greek Cypriot police arrested Omer Gazi Tekogul for possession of 2 kilograms of heroin near the village of Pyla, located in the U.N. buffer zone. (references) |
Mexico | On July 18, officials confiscated more than 400 weapons including homemade knives, heroin, cocaine, drug lab paraphernalia, a cellular telephone, and elaborate peso counterfeiting materials during a sweep of the facility. (references) | |
Political Economy | Colombia | Colombia produces and distributes more cocaine than any other country in the world and is also an important supplier of heroin. (references) |
Trade | Uae | All kind of illicit drugs (Hashish, Cocaine, Heroin, etc.) are prohibited in the UAE. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Jimmy Carter | 1977-1981 | At the beginning of my Administration there were over a half million heroin addicts in the United States. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Heroin" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.89% of the time. "Heroin" is used about 911 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.89% | 910 | 7,883 |
| Noun (common) | 0.11% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 911 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "heroin": heroin addict ♦ heroin addiction ♦ Heroin Dependence ♦ heroin user. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "heroin": heroin-addicted, heroin-addicts, heroin-dependent, heroin-free, heroin-induced, heroin-taking, heroin-user, heroin-using. | |
Ending with "heroin": anti-heroin, Od'd-on-heroin, post-heroin, pre-heroin. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "heroin"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | heroпen, heroïne, heroïen, heldin (heroine). (various references) | |
Albanian | heroinë (heroine). (various references) | |
Arabic | الهيرويين مخدر. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | хероин (horse, snow). (various references) | |
Chinese | 白麵' , 海洛 . (various references) | |
Czech | heroin. (various references) | |
Danish | heroin (heroine). (various references) | |
Dutch | heroïne (heroine). (various references) | |
Esperanto | heroino (heroine), heroeno. (various references) | |
Farsi | هروءین . (various references) | |
French | héroïne (heroine). (various references) | |
Frisian | heldinne (heroine). (various references) | |
German | heroin (diacetylmorphine, diamorphine). (various references) | |
Greek | ηρωίνη (diacetylmorphine, diamorphine). (various references) | |
Hebrew | "רואין. (various references) | |
Hungarian | heroin (junk). (various references) | |
Irish | hearóin. (various references) | |
Italian | eroina (heroine). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | ヘブライ語 (health, health center, health check, health club, health food, health meter, healthy, heart, heaven, Hebrew, helicopter, Helios, helioscope, heliotrope, heliport, helium, helix, hell, Hellenism, hellfire, helm, helmet, Helmholtz, help, helper, Helsinki, hem, hemline, hemoglobin, hemstitch, hen party, Henckels, henna, Hepburn, Herakles, herald, Hercules, Hermes, hernia, herpangina, herringbone, Herzogovina, Hz, Mr, Switzerland, type of massage parlor). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ヘロイン . (various references) | |
Korean | 헤로인. (various references) | |
Papiamen | heroina (heroine), eroina (heroine). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eroinhay.(various references) | |
Polish | bohaterka (heroine). (various references) | |
Portuguese | heroína (heroine, snow). (various references) | |
Russian | героин (smack). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | heroin (horse, junk, smack). (various references) | |
Spanish | heroína (heroine, horse, smack). (various references) | |
Swedish | hjältinna (heroine), heroin (junk, smack). (various references) | |
Turkish | kadin kahraman (heroine), eroin (dynamite, horse, snow), eroín (heroine), beyaz (blank, Hoar, leuco-, white, white part). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | героїн. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | heroine, herois. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "heroin": heroine, heroines, heroinism, heroinisms, heroins. (additional references) | |
Words containing "heroin": antiheroine, antiheroines, superheroine, superheroines. (additional references) | |
| |
"Heroin" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Eroni, hagopian, Haratin, Harcoun, Hardouin, harion, Harouna, Harroun, heraion, herapin, Herawi, herdin, herian, herion, Herlin, hermin, herodians, Heroina, heroing, heroins, Heronim, Hervovie, herzi, Herziana, Hesoun, Higoi, Hiroak, hiroki, hironen, Hirosi, horo, Huerin, huronian, Jerpoint, Meroni, Mhedrioni, neronian, Phiroun, serion, Yeroen. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "heroin" (pronounced he"rōun) |
| 6 | h e" r ō u n | heroine. |
| 3 | -ō u n | bedouin. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-h-i-n-o-r" | |
-1 letter: heron, honer, irone, rhino. | |
-2 letters: heir, hern, hero, hire, hoer, hone, horn, inro, iron, noir, nori, rein. | |
-3 letters: eon, ern, hen, her, hie, hin, hoe, hon, ion, ire, noh, nor, one, ore, rei, rho, rin, roe. | |
-4 letters: eh, en, er, he, hi, ho, in, ne, no, oe, oh, on, or, re. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-h-i-n-o-r" | |
+1 letter: chorine, heroine, heroins, hordein, hornier, inshore, phonier. | |
+2 letters: antihero, chlorine, chorines, cohering, coinhere, corniche, dihedron, enchoric, hereinto, heroines, hizzoner, homering, hordeins, horniest, hornlike, hornpipe, hovering, inthrone, morphine, neighbor, ochering, ornithes, overthin, prochein, thermion, thornier, unheroic, unholier. | |
+3 letters: anchorite, anorthite, antechoir, bothering, chlorines, chondrite, chronaxie, chronicle, coinhered, coinheres, corniches, coshering, dehorning, dehorting, dihedrons, endorphin, exhorting, fashioner, firethorn, gheraoing, harmonies, harmonise, harmonize, hectoring, heroinism, heroizing, heronries, hizzoners, hoariness, hollering, holocrine, horniness, hornpipes, horsemint, horsiness, inheritor, inthroned, inthrones, ionophore, isochrone, koshering, morphines, mothering, neighbors, neighbour, nephrosis, nephrotic, nourished, nourisher, nourishes, nowhither, ornithine, overnight, overthink, ownership, parhelion, pothering, premonish, reechoing, refashion, rehousing, reshoeing, reshowing, rhinoceri, rhodamine, rhodonite, senhorita, shipborne, shipowner, shoreline, showering, thereinto, thermions, thorniest, thornlike, threnodic, threonine, thyroxine, tochering, trihedron, whereinto, windhover. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Quotations: Speeches | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Abbreviations 14. Acronyms 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
