Though the price of street heroin in the United States has never been lower, the ultimate costs of heroin addiction remain extremely high. With heroin addiction comes a wide range of consequences, not only for addicts themselves but also for their friends and families, as well as for the societies in which they live.

The Health Consequences for Addicts

The health consequences for heroin addicts are numerous, and many of them are extremely serious. The most serious threat of all is the ever-present possibility of taking a fatal overdose of the drug. When heroin overdose occurs, the drug's depressant effect on the respiratory system prevents the body from getting a sufficient amount of oxygen, and the user falls into a coma. The user's respiratory system continues to slow to the point where the body simply loses its impulse to breathe...