Heroin blocks the pain messages emanating from your spinal cord. You may have started on a prescription opiate medication to manage pain and ended up turning to heroin when your prescription medication became too expensive or too difficult to get. You tried increasing the dose, took the pills more often than prescribed, but you couldn’t get the same relief. Turning to heroin provided relief, but relief that’s coming with a very high price — damage to your body; deteriorating your relationships with those you love; emptying your bank account and endangering your job. You no longer can imagine life without heroin.
Heroin overdose is common because you may not be able to control the amount you put into your body and the purity of street heroin cannot be known.