SERIES: DRUGS UNCOVERED: THE FACTS: HEROIN

Heroin is produced from morphine, derived from the sap of the
opium poppy Papaver somniferum (or 'the sleep-bringing poppy'). Ten
per cent of the poppy latex (or sap) is composed of morphine, with
codeine (thought to be the most popular medicinal drug in the world)
making up another two per cent.

Heroin is a powerful painkiller, which works on the brain and
central nervous system to cause strong feelings of warmth, well-being
and drowsiness, as well as eliminating physical and psychological
pain. If injected, the drug will take effect after about 30 seconds,
then last for around six hours. Fatal overdoses are a very real
hazard, but are rare unless it is taken with other substances
(particularly cocaine).

Heroin costs around UKP 40-UKP 60 per gram, athough it costs
around UKP 100 per day to feed a regular habit.

It can take just three days of regular use for a heroin user to
become addicted. After this point, the user becomes more and more
immune to the drug's euphoric effects (and so must take more and more
to feel them).

In 1906, 41,000 tonnes of opium were produced worldwide (39,000
tonnes of which were consumed in China). Figures for 2008 stand at
8,870 tonnes.

The British East India Company made its fortune largely by
providing the Chinese with their fix - by the 1790s they had a
monopoly on opium imports into China, trading 2,000 chests of the
poppy per year. The two devastating Opium Wars of the 19th century
both began after the Chinese attempted to suppress the traffic of the
drug into their country.