The term chasing the dragon actually originated in Hong Kong. It means to inhale the smoke from heated morphine, heroin or opium that has been placed on a piece of foil. The ‘chasing’ occurs as the user daintily keeps the liquid moving in order to keep it from gelling into a single ball. This has caught on rather fast in the United States and other countries too. One reason is that the purity of heroin is much higher than in days gone by. Another reason is that it just sounds to cool and interesting it sort of lures our youth into trying it.
There are even counselors who are advising their clients to stop shooting heroin and to start smoking heroin instead. There reasoning is that smoking is much safer than injecting it. I don’t know how much safer it really is because to me all heroin is dangerous. I agree it is very easy to overdose shooting heroin but can’t you overdose smoking it or snorting it as well?
Like I was saying it is dangerous in fact, short term effects of smoking heroin include but may not be limited to- nausea and vomiting, scratching or itchy, respiratory complications that can lead to death. Long term use carries the risk of infection, heart attack, liver and kidney damage and pneumonia all of which can lead to death. All of these heroin symptoms are things that someone should really think about before deciding that smoking the stuff is better than shooting it. I don’t know if smoking it really is the lesser of two evils, this is for you to decide but if you have had enough of using drugs keep reading because I will explain how to stop smoking heroin and find help.
If you are ready to be free of drugs I would suggest that you go to addiction treatment. If you go you will be medically detoxed from the drug. I will add that you will suffer very little from heroin withdrawal. This entire detox takes no more than 5 days. They normally will use medications like Suboxone to make you more comfortable. I do have to suggest that you continue your recovery in residential treatment after your heroin detox is done. There you will learn a lot of ways to keep from returning to active addiction.
Heroin users who are looking for a way out of their addiction can find help at a treatment center. You will find the counselors to be caring and understanding people who will be more than willing to work with you to not just succeed at quitting heroin, but to stay off of it for good as well. There are some people who would rather do a heroin detox at home, but this will be much more difficult and is not recommended.
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