Why Do Drug Users Progress to Injecting Drugs? There are many ways to take drugs, including oral ingestion, nasal inhalation, and intravascular injection. In fact, regardless of the method, the ultimate goal is to get the drugs into the human body and reach the brain. Among these methods, injecting drugs delivers the fastest and most intense effects.
The shift from chasing and smoking heroin to injecting it is a sign of worsening addiction. Due to the development of physical tolerance, drug users need increasingly larger doses, and when they can no longer afford the cost, they are forced to turn to injection.
As drug use persists, the euphoria from regular doses and oral/nasal ingestion can no longer satisfy their cravings. Injecting drugs thus becomes an inevitable choice at a certain stage of drug abuse, and there are several forms of injection as follows:
Intravenous Injection Intravenous drug injection has become very common internationally in recent years, a practice referred to as "sticking" by drug users. Drugs such as heroin and morphine can all be administered intravenously. Besides pursuing the so-called "euphoric high", users opt for this method primarily to cut costs, as far less of the drug is needed to achieve the desired effect with intravenous injection.
Arterial Injection The administration method is the same as intravenous injection, but arterial injection is significantly more dangerous, posing a high risk of aneurysms or even death. Those who choose arterial injection are mostly young users seeking an extreme high, as well as users whose veins are blocked and no longer usable for injection.
Other Injection Methods These include subcutaneous, intramuscular, and subungual injection, which are mostly used when superficial veins are occluded and unavailable.
Harms of Injecting Drugs Long-term intravenous injection can disrupt local blood circulation, causing skin redness and ulceration. Reckless sharing and reuse of syringes expose users to various secondary infectious syndromes, such as hepatitis B, bacterial endocarditis, sepsis, and HIV infection. In addition, promiscuous sexual behavior leads to the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis and lymphogranuloma venereum. During drug withdrawal, users experience severe depression and exhaustion, accompanied by intense suicidal thoughts and even self-harming behaviors.
Drugs slow down gastrointestinal peristalsis and drastically reduce digestive juice secretion, diminishing the appetite for food. Deprived of proper nutrition, long-term malnutrition leaves most drug users emaciated and sallow-skinned, with horrific needle marks covering their arms. A compromised immune system also makes them far more susceptible to bacterial infections and illnesses than the general population.
Illicit street drugs are often cut with a variety of unknown adulterants, resulting in extremely unstable purity. These complex adulterants, mixed with unsterilized tap water and used in non-sterile syringes, allow harmful bacteria to enter the bloodstream directly through the needle, easily causing vascular obstruction. This can further lead to cerebral embolism and major arterial embolism, in some cases forcing amputation to save the user’s life.
Prolonged drug injection causes abnormal behavior, mood swings, and confused thinking in users, and most critically, inflicts severe physical and mental harm. Their lives become completely derailed: they stay up all night and sleep all day, falling into a severe state of life disorganization. When they stop using drugs, they suffer from emotional disorders such as anxiety, irritability, and sudden outbursts of anger—symptoms that can only be alleviated by continuous drug use.
To obtain money for drugs, users will deceive their family and friends, resorting to all means to get their hands on drugs. Driven by an overwhelming craving, they are willing to sacrifice everything for their next hit. While quitting drug injection is undoubtedly challenging, it is a necessity for the sake of one’s health and life—for without quitting, the only inevitable outcome is death.
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