Earlier this week Phillip Seymour Hoffman passed away from a possible drug overdose.
According to an article in the Inquirer called "After Hoffman Death Look at Drug Use in Area," he was found lying on the bathroom floor of his New York apartment with a needle protruding from his arm.
It is suspected that Hoffman had been using heroin at the time because of the empty wrappings containing leftover residue of the substance scattered around the bathroom and his apartment.
Heroin Epidemic on the Rise Addiction and deaths related to heroin have been on the rise for years.
This is partly due to the fact that many drug users switch to heroin after having an addiction to expensive prescription pills.
They do this because heroin is cheaper.
It is never a good time to inject heroin into the body, but it has also recently become more dangerous.
Some bad batches of heroin have been working their way around the globe.
The Centers for Disease Control have been notified of this on numerous accounts.
The first reports were in Camden, New Jersey, and recently reports have been filed in Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
This tainted batch of heroin is literally leveling the drug community by killing most of its users.
According to The Atlantic in an article entitled "Hoffman and the Terrible Heroin Deaths in the Shadows Tainted," bags are hard to catch because they are sold quickly and are hard to track without information that the victims could provide.
Dangers of Heroin Heroin is an opioid-based drug that originates from the Asian poppy plant.
When used, heroin is converted into morphine in the body.
This causes the body to turn off receptors in the brain, which perceive pain.
Heroin is highly addictive and can usually be administered to the body by injection or inhalation.
The leftover needle in Hoffman's arm suggests that he was injecting the substance when he possibly overdosed and died [according to drug facts from the National Institute on Drug Abuse regarding the drug heroin].
Heroin poses many health risks including, but not limited to, death by overdose.
Because heroin causes the body to shut off pain receptors in the brain stem, other vital body functions can be affected as well.
Heroin can also cause problems with blood pressure by making breathing very difficult.
Victims who die from heroin use usually do so because they couldn't breath.
Additionally, because heroin is commonly injected with a needle, HIV and other deadly infections are common among heroin use due to needle sharing and using unsanitary needles.
Once HIV is contracted, it is next to impossible to control and will cause the body's immune system to shut down, making the body vulnerable to all types of disease.
In addition to the usual effects, heroin usually contains other chemicals that have been added as fillers or to increase its potency.
The drug recipe used is usually tainted with other chemicals that are toxic to the body and can cause permanent damage to the body's vital organs.
They can clog blood vessels, which in turn spreads damage to the lungs, liver, kidney or brain and cause permanent damage which one can never recover from even with rehab therapy.
How to Prevent Heroin Use and Addiction The best way to prevent heroin addiction is to never use it in the first place.
Heroin can create an addict on his or her first use.
Heroin is usually not a user's first drug, however, so it is important to prevent early drug use which could lead to using heroin as well.
If you or someone you know has a problem with drug or alcohol addiction, there is help out there.
The professionals at Narconon Redwood Cliffs are available to help with drug prevention.
They can rehabilitate those with addictions to heroin or any other drug.