First, before looking at the differences between heroin and morphine, what is heroin?

Heroin is an illegal opioid that’s sold on black markets and is derived from the poppy. When you take heroin, it creates a euphoric high at first and then, because it depresses the central nervous system, people will become very drowsy or sedated. A sign of heroin use is often nodding off intermittently, which is the result of the effects of the drug on the central nervous system.

Heroin attaches to the opioid receptors in the brain and floods the reward pathways with dopamine, which is a feel-good brain chemical. While this dopamine flood is responsible for the high that people seek when they use heroin, this is also what triggers the development of addiction. Your brain’s reward pathways push you to continue seeking heroin after you use it and it’s a highly addictive drug.

There’s also physical dependence that occurs with heroin. Physical dependence means that your body becomes used to the presence of heroin and if you stop using it suddenly, you go into a type of shock which is called withdrawal.

Heroin is most often injected, so along with the risks of the drug itself, there are also risks associated with intravenous drug use.