This report will be looking at the effects of heroin on the brain, and therefore loss of memory and intellectual performance. Intellectual performance is the showing of intellect and the ability to make smart choices. A healthy society is a successful society, people with different intellectual abilities are going to be more or less able to do the sorts of things they need to do to keep themselves healthy and if not healthy, not only will the person’s memory and decisions are affected, society will be as well.
This essay will begin by looking at the raw materials and chemical properties of heroin. Next we’ll be looking at how the chemical heroin enters the bloodstream by smoking, snorting or injecting. Then we look at how the brain responds to chemical.

Background

Heroin comes from the plant Papaver Somniferum also known as opium poppy. For heroin to be made, it first needs morphine to be its base chemical. For morphine to be made, a white milky latex is taken from opium poppies pod, and is then dried into a sticky jelly-like resin. Balls of opium is then boiled in water, lime is thrown into the water to take out the organic particles and make them sink to the bottom of the water. The white goo left on top is morphine. From morphine, a chemical reaction with the chemical acetic anhydride, turns it into Heroin. The heroin is then purified using filtration (a mechanical method used to separate solids from liquids or gases).


Figure 1: White milky latex from opium poppy

Scientifically known as (5α,6α)-7,8-didehydro- 4,5-epoxy-17-methylmorphinan-3,6-diol, morphine has the molecular formula C17H19NO3 , a molecular weight of 285.34 g/mol, a boiling point of 190° C and a melting point of 255° C. Morphine is a painkiller which occurs naturally in the latex sap from the opium poppy, is an odourless crystal like substance, and a benzylisoquinoline alkaloid (which is a chemical compound, and the structural backbone of many alkaloids (i.e. morphine). Heroin, scientifically known as (5α,6α)-7,8-didehydro-4,5-epoxy-17-methylmorphinan-3,6-diol diacetate, has the molecular formula C21H23NO5 , a molecular weight of 369.4 g/mol, a boiling point of 462.896°C and a melting point at 173°C. At room temperature pure heroin is a white, odourless, crystalline powder.

Figure 2: Heroin. The -COOCH3 groups that replaced the -OH groups in morphine are shown in red.
Figure 3: Morphine. Replacing both the red and blue -OH groups with -COOCH3 produces heroin.

Heroin can be taken in three main ways, smoking, snorting or injecting. Most heroin users inject heroin with syringes, as they believe it has a more intense high. This is thought, because once the heroin has been injected into your vein, you start to feel an immediate rush and flush of the skin about 6-8 seconds after the injection. 10 minutes after the injection you start to feel the peak effects, which can last up to 1-2 hours. When snorted the heroin is absorbed into the mucous membrane in your nose and throat. From there is gets into your bloodstream and travels through to the brain. To smoke, the heroin is place on metal foil and then heated from underneath, this creates smoke, this smoke is then inhaled through a straw. Once in the lungs, the heroin is quickly absorbed into the blood vessels lining the lungs. One very uncommon method is swallowing. Swallowing can be extremely dangerous as no one knows how much a person can ingest without overdosing.

Once heroin has made its way to the brain, the acetyl groups are removed, turning it back into morphine. Once made into morphine, it then connects to the Opioid receptors (Opioid receptors control breathing functions, blood pressure, pain and reward perception). The opioid receptors respond by numbing pain and creating feelings of intense pleasure. The opioid receptors found in the brain stem also respond by lowering your blood pressure and slowing down your heart rate. Heroin effects the Synaptic Transmission by increasing the postsynaptic neuron firing rate to 700%. This means the action potential occurs more frequently, allowing neurotransmitters into the synapse and bind to the receptors quicker, causing the postsynaptic receptors to be active allowing ions to flow into the postsynaptic neuron at a high rate. The neurotransmitters then unbind themselves and make their way through the reuptake channel to repeat the process. All this is happening 700% faster than it is when at its natural state.

Figure 4: Diagram showing the synaptic transmission when it is normal compared to when heroin is in effect.

Discussion

When taking heroin, you have consider who else it will effect. Females that are pregnant and use heroin are also putting their child at risk. As the heroin enters the bloodstream and is sent through the body to the brain, it also ends up in the placenta just as quick and applies its effects to the fetus. The use of heroin during pregnancy can lead to premature birth and poor fetal growth, the infections/ diseases caused by the drug addiction the mother has (i.e. syphilis and hepatitis) can be transmitted to the fetus. Once the babies are born they must go through withdrawal, as they have inherited their mother’s addiction. This process is painful and has symptoms of, a higher pitch cry, diarrhoea, sweating, irritability and tremors. The babies are likely to have a small head and a low birth weight. Babies with a low birth weight have been shown to have behaviour problems, language and other learning difficulties later in life, as their brains aren’t able to function and develop properly due to the addiction, they may also be rejected by peers, and the children may need special education courses.

Conclusion

heroin is opiate derived from the chemical morphine, which occurs naturally in the pod of the plant Papaver Somniferum. Heroin can be taken in three major ways smoking, snorting or injecting. It can also be swallowed but is highly un-recommended. Once heroin has reached the brain, it turns back into morphine and connects itself to opioid receptors causing the synaptic transmission to increase to 700%. Heroin doesn’t only affect the user it also affects the people around them. A pregnant soon to be mother will transfer their addiction on to the new born causing it to have a low birth weight, which can result in poor intellectual performance in school and memory loss.

Public education piece

My public education piece is a presentation to advise the general public of the information learned during this research assignment.

References

Mark Dombeck, How drugs affect the brain https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/how-drugs-affect-the-brain/ 4/09/15

Elizabeth Hartney, What is Heroin? http://addictions.about.com/od/dailylifewithaddiction/a/What-Is-In-Heroin.htm  15/09/15

Bruno Dubuc, The Brain From Top To Bottom 
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_03/i_03_m/i_03_m_par/i_03_m_par_heroine.html  28/09/15  

Charles W.H Pau, Tatia M.C Lee, Shui-fun F Chan, The impact of heroin on frontal executive functions
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S088761770100169X  13/10/15

Natasha Tracy, How is heroin made?
http://www.healthyplace.com/addictions/heroin-addiction/how-is-heroin-made/  14/10/15

Royal Society of Chemistry, ChemSpider search and share chemistry 
http://www.chemspider.com/Chemical-Structure.4575379.html  17/10/15

Drug Facts: Heroin, John DiConsiglio
http://headsup.scholastic.com/students/drug-facts-heroin  19/10/15 

Drug Facts: Heroin, National Institute on Drug Abuse 
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/heroin  20/10/15

Smoking Heroin, How does Heroin affect your Brain?
http://www.smokingheroin.com/How-does-Heroin-affect-your-Brain.aspx  21/10/15

Opium, Morphine and Heroin, Chem Wiki Imperial College
http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/mim/drugs/html/morphine_text.htm   21/10/15

PBworks, An overview of heroin and its teratogenic effect on infant and fetal development. 
http://heroinbabies.pbworks.com/w/page/17918342/FrontPage  2/10/15

Esther Inglis-Arkell, How to turn a pretty flower into one of the most addictive drugs in the world.
http://io9.com/5838180/how-to-turn-a-pretty-flower-into-one-of-the-most-addictive-drugs-in-the-world  28/10/15

Dr. Jonathan Wai, What do we know about human intelligence?
http://www.creativitypost.com/psychology/what_do_we_know_about_human_intelligence  30/10/15

Harvard College, The effects of drugs and disease on synaptic transmission 
http://outreach.mcb.harvard.edu/animations/synapse.swf  1/11/15