Heroin additive

Morphine, when extracted from raw opium and treated chemically, yields the semisynthetic narcotics hydromorphone, oxymorphone, oxycodone, and heroin. Heroin is an illegal narcotic in the United States and is not used in medicine. Synthetic narcotics are those man-made analgesics with properties and actions similar to the natural opioids. Examples of synthetic narcotic analgesics are methadone, levorphanol, remifen-tanil, and meperidine Additional narcotics are listed in the Summary Drug Table Narcotic Analgesics. 

Heroin is often detected by the presence of acetic acid vapors since acetic acid is a normal decomposition product of heroin.t2l In addition, heroin produced in illegal drug laboratories by treating morphine (see Fig. 13.6.2) with acetic anhy-... 

That impression gets of a lot of routine reinforcement from news sources. Chemistry is associated with pollution of the atmosphere by ozone and the noxious oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, oil spills, toxic pesticides and herbicides, smelly oil refineries, undesired food additives, chemical accidents, substances of abuse such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine, and chemical weapons. Chemistry gets a lot of bad ink. 

Today, as a result of criminal prohibition, heroin is only available on the black market and is commonly adulterated with admixtures that increase the health risks, including the likelihood of overdose." Additionally, under criminal prohibition, most states do not allow heroin users to obtain sterile syringes users are left to re-use syringes and share these with other users. ... 

The Board is pleased to note that, during 2004, two additional countries, Serbia and Montenegro and Turkmenistan, joined the operation. Their participation is considered very important. In the case of Serbia and Montenegro, traffickers have targeted that country for the diversion of acetic anhydride from licit trade to be subsequently smuggled into areas where illicit heroin... 

The combination of pentazocine with the antihistamine tripelennamine results in a combination known to drug abusers as T s and blues. This combination produces heroinlike subjective effects, and heroin addicts use it in the absence of heroin. In addition, the use of pentazocine in combination with alcohol or barbiturates greatly enhances its sedative and respiratory depressant effects. 

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