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Addiction: Heroin

How is heroin injected?

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As most heroin in the UK is the brown smoking type, which doesn't dissolve easily, users have to dissolve it using citric acid or ascorbic acid before they can inject it. Heroin can be injected intravenously (into a vein) or intramuscularly (into a muscle). Some users inject into the tissue just under the skin: this is called 'skin popping'.

Injecting heroin into a vein results in an almost immediate effect, as the drug enters the bloodstream and arrives at the brain very rapidly. Injecting into muscle produces a slower reaction.

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