» will I become addicted after one dose?
No. Heroin's 'incredible' addictiveness has been much overplayed, backed up by the tragic spectres of long term addicts, physcially wasted by their habits. Nevertheless, like alcohol, nicotine, amphetamines and cocaine, heroin is a highly addictive drug with a seductive physical and psychological effect. It's ability to smother and cushion a user from their lives often draws the user into a psychological addiction, much before the physical compulsion starts.

» if you don't inject heroin can you still become addicted?
All ways of taking heroin can lead to addiction. Smoking and sniffing heroin do not produce a "rush" as quickly or as intensely as intravenous injection, but the heroin still ends up in the brain, where addiction and tolerance build up.

» what is "chasing the dragon"?
Smoking heroining, using by heating it foil and inhaling the vapour through a tube or rolled up banknote.

» what does heroin do?
The body has its own pain-killing opiates called endorphins which are released in times of physical injury. Heroin is converted by the brain into morphine which then binds of the endorphin receptors all over the body, creating a powerful and pleasurable warm 'cotton wool' effect.

» what's the difference between brown and white heroin?
Pure heroin is usually white. Street heroin is usually brown from impurities and adulterants. However there is no way to guage heroin purity just from looking at it.

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» Is it true that heroin is stronger than it used to be?
Purity varies, fluctuating on a local basis depending on availability (dealers reduce purity when they don't have as much) but generally, yes, heroin is purer now than it has ever been.

Part of this is because former cocaine cartels are now branching out into heroin as well, flooding the market. Higher purity also makes snorting and inhaling an alternative to injecting without too much compromising of the intensity of the high.

» Is it true that most addicts have HIV?
No. About 10% of London's heroin users, for example, are HIV+. But 50% have Hepatitis B and around 90% have Hepatitis C. HIV and Hep B & C are passed on more readily through unsafe injecting practice than by other means.

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» Where does heroin come from?
Most heroin in the UK comes from poppies grown in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. In the US, heroin comes from Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and the notorious Golden Triangle area of Southeast Asia (Burma, Thailand, Laos).

» Why do heroin addict use lemons?
The brown heroin commonly seen in the UK doesn't dissolve very easily and so is difficult to inject intravenously. Users have to use acids, usually citric acid from lemons, to do so.

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