Addiction is only one of the dangers of black tar heroin use. Its crude manufacturing process, unknown contaminant content, and dangerous methods of use put black tar heroin users at increased risk of life-threatening health consequences.
What Is Black Tar Heroin?
Black tar heroin is a highly addictive, less refined form of heroin. While brown and white powdered heroin are typically around 50% pure, black tar heroin is only 25% – 30% pure, but it is still very potent. Because of its solid consistency, black tar heroin is most often smoked. However, some users put it into solution for injection or snort it. Black tar heroin is usually sold in small foil packets and balloons, often smells strongly of vinegar, and has many street names including Black Tar, Black Dragon, Black Pearl, and Black.
What Does Heroin Look Like?
Heroin comes in several different forms. More refined forms of heroin appear as brown or white powder. Black tar heroin looks like a sticky glob of black roofing tar or a hard black chunk of coal. Liquid heroin is heroin that has been mixed with water. It can appear clear, amber, or brown depending on the quality of the heroin used to create the solution. Powdered heroin is easier to mix with water, so is more commonly used to make liquid heroin. Black tar heroin can also be turned into an injectable liquid, but the process is lengthy and involved because black tar heroin isn’t easily water-soluble.
How Is Black Tar Heroin Made?
The majority of black tar heroin is made in Mexico and distributed in the United States through networks west of the Mississippi River which is why it’s more commonly found in the western U.S. Black tar heroin is made from morphine that is extracted from the seeds of opium poppy plants. After the morphine has been collected from raw opium, it’s mixed with ammonia, heated, and filtered. This creates a morphine base to which other chemicals are added. Powdered heroin goes through further refinement to remove impurities, but for black tar heroin, the refining process stops here. This is why black tar heroin contains more impurities than other forms of heroin. This crude form of heroin is then mixed with other cutting agents which can themselves be highly toxic.
How Does Heroin Affect the Brain?
Despite its crude form, black tar heroin is still incredibly potent. When heroin enters the bloodstream and reaches the brain, it’s converted into morphine and binds to opioid receptors. The brain’s opioid receptors are involved in how you feel pain and pleasure. They also play a role in controlling your breathing and heart rate. Heroin users report feeling a surge or rush of pleasure or euphoria followed by feelings of relaxation and contentment.
Short-Term Side Effects of Black Tar Heroin Use
Whether users inject or smoke heroin, the initial rush of euphoria is usually accompanied by side effects including:
- Dry mouth
- A warm feeling in your skin
- A heavy feeling in your arms and legs
- Itching
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Drowsiness
- Slowed breathing
- Reduced heart rate
While some of these side effects are mild, heroin’s ability to slow your heart rate and breathing can be extremely dangerous. If your breathing is severely slowed, it can cause coma, brain damage, and even death.
Long-Term Side Effects of Black Tar Heroin Use
Long-term use of any type of heroin can lead to serious physical and mental health issues. Research has shown that long-term heroin use decreases the number of receptors in the brain. This decreases your sensitivity to heroin so that you have to use more of the drug . Studies have also shown that long-term heroin use causes the white and gray matter in the brain to deteriorate. This affects movement and motor function as well as your ability to make decisions, respond to stress, and control your behavior.
Chronic heroin use also causes other side effects including:
- Insomnia
- Increased risk of lung-related illness such as pneumonia
- Severe, persistent constipation
- Erectile dysfunction
- Menstrual cycle disruption
Because of the impurities it contains and its consistency, black tar heroin can cause other unique and serious health complications.
Injection-Related Health Conditions
Repeatedly injecting heroin has several serious health consequences. Chronic injection causes veins to become scarred and even collapse, a condition known as venous sclerosis. When a vein seems to disappear or when you can’t draw any blood from it, that means the vein has collapsed. Injection can also cause frequent abscesses in the skin. Abscesses occur when you miss a vein and inject heroin into tissue, or by not cleaning the injection site before ‘shooting up’, injecting poorly dissolved solutions, reusing needles, and by injecting heroin under the skin, a practice known as skin-popping. If an injection site is red, tender, and swollen, that can indicate the early stages of an abscess that will eventually become a full-blown infection. If this infection is left untreated, it can spread and cause systemic infection with life-threatening consequences such as heart valve infection and even sepsis.
Exposure to Dangerous Toxins
Black tar heroin is often diluted or “cut” with other substances to in order to increase profits for drug dealers. The substances used to cut heroin can be toxic. Common “cuts” for black tar heroin include caffeine, powdered milk, and quinine. Because it is cut with unknown substances and because it is less refined, using black tar heroin means you really don’t know what kinds of toxins you’re being exposed to.
Respiratory Damage
Smoking black tar heroin means you’re also smoking any impurities, toxins, or chemicals it contains. Exposing your lungs to these contaminants can cause chronic respiratory issues, including shortness of breath, persistent cough, scarring of the lung tissue, pneumonia, lung infections, and even lung collapse.
Wound Botulism
Wound botulism happens when bacteria with the capability to produce botulinum toxin get into a wound such as an abscess or injection site. Botulism is a toxin that attacks your nervous system. It can cause paralysis, difficulty breathing, and even death. Most people get it from injecting black tar heroin under the skin (skin popping) or into a muscle (muscle popping).
Symptoms of wound botulism don’t start immediately. They can take anywhere from a few days to two weeks to appear. This means that you can have wound botulism even if you don’t see any signs of infection.
We don’t know how black tar heroin becomes contaminated with these types of bacteria, but you can’t tell drugs are contaminated by looking at them. These bacteria cannot be killed by heating the heroin and they can be spread by sharing contaminated drugs and needles.
Symptoms of wound botulism mimic heroin overdose symptoms. You may feel weak, have trouble breathing, have slurred speech, or be unable to talk at all. These symptoms may cause the sufferer to be given Narcan, but Narcan does not have any effect on botulism. If you still have overdose-like symptoms after being given Narcan, or if you suspect that you or someone you know has wound botulism, seek medical help immediately.
Gas Gangrene
Gas gangrene is another type of bacterial infection associated with black tar heroin use. Many users skin pop black tar heroin, unknowingly introducing bacteria to traumatized and wounded tissues and creating ideal conditions for the bacteria to grow and spread. The bacteria that cause gas gangrene release toxins that destroy muscle tissue, blood vessels, and blood cells. Gas gangrene causes the wound site on your skin to become swollen, blistered, and discolored. Gas gangrene-causing bacteria reproduce quickly, so symptoms can appear and change within minutes. Because the bacteria grow so rapidly, gas gangrene symptoms can become life-threatening very quickly, leading to kidney failure, sepsis, and septic shock. If you suspect you or someone you know has gas gangrene, seek medical help at once. Gas gangrene can be fatal if not treated immediately.
Increased Risk of Overdose
Black tar heroin is very unpredictable. It doesn’t have a consistent potency, making it hard to know how big of a dose you’ve taken. And because black tar heroin is often cut with other unknown substances, users often don’t know what they’re actually taking. Both of these factors put black tar heroin users at increased risk for overdose.
Heroin Withdrawal
Chronic heroin use causes you to become physically dependent on the drug, meaning you have to keep taking it in order to prevent withdrawal symptoms. Heroin withdrawal symptoms can begin within hours of your last use, peak within 72 hours and can last for up to ten days. While they’re not usually life-threatening, heroin withdrawal symptoms are extremely uncomfortable and include:
- Nausea and vomiting
- Stomach cramps and diarrhea
- Headaches
- Muscle and joint pain
- Excessive sweating and cold chills
- Insomnia
- Racing heartbeat
- Feeling anxious and agitated
- Extremely strong desire to use again
Because heroin withdrawal brings strong cravings for the drug, people who try to detox on their own are at increased risk for a return to use. Using heroin again after a period of not using increases your risk of fatal overdose, so you should never attempt to go cold turkey from black tar heroin on your own.
At Detox West Tennessee, you’ll find a team of compassionate experts ready to help you detox safely and comfortably. Our medically assisted heroin detox program offers 24/7 personalized support in a secure environment. Here, you’ll begin to focus on your recovery as you start your journey towards sobriety. If you or someone you love is struggling with a black tar heroin-use disorder, we’re here to help with the detox care you need. Call us today at 901-665-5090.
