Heroin  

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"Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction." --The Sign of the Four


"It takes at least three months’ shooting twice a day to get any habit at all. And you don’t really know what junk sickness is until you have had several habits. It took me almost six months to get my first habit, and then the withdrawal symptoms were mild. I think it no exaggeration to say it takes about a year and several hundred injections to make an addict." --preface to Junkie, William S. Burroughs

Heroin was commercially developed by Bayer Pharmaceutical and was marketed by Bayer and other companies (c. 1900) for several medicinal uses including cough suppression.
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Heroin was commercially developed by Bayer Pharmaceutical and was marketed by Bayer and other companies (c. 1900) for several medicinal uses including cough suppression.

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Heroin is a powerful and addictive drug derived from opium producing intense euphoria classed as a narcotic in most of the world.

Culture

Heroin has inspired countless writers, musicians and other artists over the past century of use. However, its influence is often misunderstood or unfairly assumed; many creative people have used or been addicted to heroin, but the extent to which the drug affected their creativity is debatable. Relatively few artists with great talent have credited heroin use with major epiphanies. The 1996 Danny Boyle film Trainspotting, based on the book by Irvine Welsh, depicts heroin users in the areas around Edinburgh in Scotland. Other movies that deal with heroin users include the 1955 Frank Sinatra film The Man with the Golden Arm; the 1971 Al Pacino film, Panic in Needle Park; the 2000 film Requiem for a Dream; and More.

Etymology

Since the 1890s, from German Heroin, originally a trademark said to derive from Ancient Greek ἥρως (hḗrōs, “hero”) (due to the feelings of power and exaltation while under the influence of the drug) and the suffix -in (“-ine”). Alternatively explained as reference to the heroic school of medicine.

See also

drugs, heroin chic, junky, drugs in literature, heroin in music, heroin in literature, heroin in film




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Heroin" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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