Facts about how heroin is used covers inhalation, injection, smoking, and other means such as oral ingestion. In the past, heroin was primarily used by injection. Today users are ingesting heroin in other ways which are just a dangerous and deadly. As many as half of all babies born to heroin users are born with low birth weight. These babies, many of whom are premature, often suffer from serious health problems during the newborn period, including breathing problems, and are at increased risk of lifelong disabilities. Heroin users who inject the drug expose themselves to additional risks, including contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B and C, and other blood-borne viruses. Chronic users who inject heroin also risk scarred or collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and liver and kidney disease. Of the more than 4,000 people who died of a heroin-related overdose in 2006, almost 80% came as a result of complications due to combining heroin with alcohol or other drugs. |
