Did you know that the number of deaths every day due to opioid overdose is on the rise in Canada? Heroin is an opioid and an incredibly addictive drug that originates from the opium poppy. This plant naturally grows in South and Central America and some parts of Asia. This addictive drug has grown in popularity worldwide and remains one of the most dangerous substances on the market today. Have you ever wondered, how long does a heroin high last? The truth is that this can be dependent on how you use heroin, as it can be smoked, snorted, or injected into your veins. Interested in learning more about heroin? You’ve found the right article. Here’s everything you need to know about heroin, what it feels like, and the adverse effects this drug can have on your life.

What Is Heroin?

As mentioned above, heroin is a drug derived from the opium poppy and has been banned in Canada since 1911. Despite this, the drug is responsible for tens of thousands of overdoses every year. This highlights the addictive nature of the drug itself.

Heroin can look like a white or brown powder, with some heroin also coming in a black, sticky, tar-like substance. This led to the drug having nicknames like smack, junk, and brown sugar. While heroin is a powder most of the time, this drug is often snorted, smoked, and injected directly into your veins to get high.

What Does Heroin Feel Like?

There are both short-term and long-term effects of using heroin. While the short-term effects are dominated by the high that you get from the drug, the long-term effects showcase the damage that the drug can do to your body.

In simple terms, heroin delivers a sense of euphoria as the drug takes control of your nervous system. This high can last anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour, depending on your body’s tolerance and how you consume the heroin. This euphoria is paired with warm, flushed skin, a dry mouth, and a fuzzy brain.

While the euphoria dominates the experience, the long-term effects of using heroin can leave you with insomnia, collapsed veins, mental disorders, and skin infections.

Is Heroin a Stimulant?

There are two main categories of drugs, stimulants and depressants. While stimulants give you a burst of energy, depressants leave you immobile with a high. Heroin is not a stimulant but a depressant that can leave you feeling drowsy and relieved of pain.

This is the major selling point of the drug, unlike cocaine, a stimulant that delivers a burst of energy to those who use it. Heroin does temporarily relieve pain, leading to many people becoming addicted and reliant on the drug every day.

What Does Heroin Smell Like?

When it comes to smelling heroin, it’s a lot more difficult than substances like marijuana. This is because the drug is usually odourless, allowing it to go undetected for quite a while. Especially if the person injects heroin directly into their veins, you won’t be able to smell much.

If you’re near heroin and want to know what the substance itself smells like, data has suggested that it may smell like vinegar. However, heroin can smell differently depending on what the dealer uses to cut it.

What Is Purple Heroin?

As mentioned above, there are a few different kinds of heroin on the market today. One of the most addictive kinds of heroin is purple heroin. This substance is a mixture of acetaminophen, heroin, and brorphine. This mixes to form an incredibly potent version of the drug that’s highly addictive and dangerous.

How Is Heroin Used?

The most common way to consume heroin is by snorting, smoking, or injecting it directly into your veins.

Can You Snort Heroin?

Snorting heroin is an incredibly popular way to consume the drug. However, this often leads to people using more heroin as there is a delay before you start to feel the effects of the substance. In most cases, snorting heroin takes around 10 minutes to kick in, significantly longer than other methods like smoking.

Smokable Opium

Heroin can also be smoked, with many people mixing it into a cigarette, sometimes adding other substances like marijuana to deliver a more potent high. While this is an incredibly dangerous way to consume heroin, it’s often the most difficult to detect.

Injecting Heroin

While snorting heroin may take around 10 minutes to kick in, injecting heroin directly into your veins is the most effective method. This is why so many people choose to inject heroin, ignoring the added danger of this method.

Injecting heroin directly into your veins comes with tons of added dangers, such as the risk of infection. This is because using needles or even sharing needles with others can cause lots of harm. Even if you use new needles every time, there is still the risk of damaging your body.

Despite many addicts stating that injecting heroin provides you with a longer high, the truth is that addicts experience much shorter highs. This is because their body has built up a tolerance to the drug, making them dependent every day. In addition, their body will require more of the drug to feel the same effects as before.

How Long Does a Heroin High Last?

As mentioned above, heroin is a powerful, addictive drug that quickly attaches to the opioid receptors in your nervous system. This process leaves you feeling euphoric, often called a rush or a high. While this process may leave you euphoric, it’s followed by drowsiness.

When it comes to how long a heroin high lasts, it can last anywhere from a few hours to just 15 minutes. The biggest factor that can alter this time is how used to the drug your body is. If you’re addicted to the drug, your high will not last as long as before.

This is one of the most dangerous aspects of heroin that often leads to dangerous addictions. People addicted have to use more of the drug every time just to feel the same effects. This results in more frequent use, adding to the danger and intensifying the addictive nature of the drug itself.

In addition to this, the method that you use to take the drug can play a role as well. For those who snort the drug, the high usually takes around 10 minutes to set in. This also makes the high feel less intense, with a shorter overall high of around 30 minutes.

Injecting heroin directly into your veins is the most efficient method, allowing you to get high almost instantaneously. These highs tend to last a lot longer, with some people experiencing a high for more than an hour. However, frequent use can cause this time to decrease as your body builds a natural tolerance slowly. 

Withdrawal Symptoms

Heroin is incredibly addictive, with withdrawal symptoms arising quickly after you stop using the drug. While some drugs may take a few days for these symptoms to pop up, heroin withdrawal symptoms can arise within a few hours after using the drug. This time is even shorter for addicts that regularly take heroin and have built up a strong tolerance for it.

If you stop taking heroin, you could experience symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain, chills, sleeplessness, and general cravings. Since these symptoms kick in so fast, detoxing from heroin is one of the most difficult processes. This is why inpatient treatment options are always the best choice.

Inpatient treatment allows you to detox in a safe environment with medical professionals. This means that if anything were to go wrong, professionals nearby can help you. In some cases, medications can help with the symptoms, giving you the best chance at recovering in a safe, sustainable way.

Heroin Detection

Detecting heroin in your system can vary from person to person. This is because the drug can take a while to wear off in different people. In most cases, this depends on things such as your body weight, metabolic rate, and the amount of the drug consumed.

If you take heroin along with other drugs, this can intensify the high. In addition, it can prolong the time the drug can be detected in your system. Despite this, heroin has one of the longest half-lives compared to other drugs.

A drug’s half-life refers to the time your body takes to completely process the drug from your system. This process relies on your kidneys and liver, as these organs filter the drug from your blood.

When it comes to testing for heroin, a few different tests can be done. This includes testing your urine, saliva, blood, and even your hair. Substances like heroin can show up in your urine for longer than they remain in your blood or saliva.

Factors Affecting the Detection Time of Heroin

Heroin is detectable in your urine for around 24 to 48 hours after the last dose. When the drug metabolizes, it can still be detected for up to 72 hours. The drug does not last as long in your blood, with blood tests being able to show heroin for only around 5 to 24 hours.

Heroin can be detected in your saliva for around 24 hours, but it could last longer depending on the amount used. However, testing hair is the most reliable method, as heroin can be detected in your hair for up to 3 months.

Incorrect Positive Testing

While testing is usually entirely accurate, the tests can sometimes bring up incorrect results. This is primarily due to cross-reactivity to the antibody in EIA tests. If you’re using certain medications, this should be considered before your test.

Heroin Addiction Rehab in Ontario

If you wanted to learn how long a heroin high last, hopefully now you understand the effects of this stimulant drug a bit better. As mentioned above, heroin is one of the most addictive and damaging drugs that can destroy your entire life.

Addiction is a complex disease to overcome by yourself. This is why giving yourself the tools you need to recover sustainably is important. If you want to learn more about the comprehensive treatment programmes that we have available, contact us today.