A boy or girl who is smoking marijuana at 13 is likely to earn less money as a young adult than peers who aren't abusing the drug. An adolescent who smokes less marijuana than a friend but enjoys the experience more is likelier to be addicted to the drug at 21. In another study, of those high school students surveyed in 2001 as part of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, 3.1% reported using heroin at least once during their lifetime. Male students (3.8%) were more likely than female students (2.5%) to report lifetime heroin use. Both new and experienced users risk overdosing on heroin because it is impossible for them to know the purity of the heroin they are using. (Heroin sold on the street often is mixed with other substances such as sugar, starch, or quinine. An added risk results when heroin is mixed with poisons such as strychnine.) Heroin overdoses--which can result whether the drug is snorted, smoked, or injected--can cause slow and shallow breathing, convulsions, coma, and even death. 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. | 
