What are the street names/slang terms for it?
Smack, mud, dope, horse, junk, brown sugar, big H, black tar

What type of drug is it?
Heroin is a "downer" that affects the brain's pleasure systems and interferes with the brain's ability to perceive pain. It is a highly addictive drug derived from morphine, which is obtained from the opium poppy.

What does it look like?
White to dark brown powder or tar-like substance.

How is it used?
Heroin can be injected into a vein ("mainlining"), injected into a muscle, smoked in a water pipe or standard pipe, mixed in a marijuana joint or regular cigarette, inhaled as smoke through a straw, known as "chasing the dragon," snorted as powder via the nose.

What are its short-term effects?
• warm flushing of the skin
• dry mouth
• depression of the central nervous system
• slurred speech, slow gait
• constricted pupils, droopy eyelids
• impaired night vision
• drug craving
• restlessness, insomnia
• muscle, bone pain
• vomiting
• constipation
• dry, itching skin
• decreased sexual pleasure, indifference to sex

What are its long-term effects?
• addiction
• collapsed veins
• infection of the heart lining and valves
• respiratory depression or failure
• abscesses
• cellulites
• liver disease
• pulmonary complications including pneumonia
• clogging of blood vessels
• cold flashes with goose bumps
• involuntary kicking movements