There are a number of serious risks associated with heroin use, most famously AIDS/HIV transmission among those who share dirty needles, but the biggest threat to health of those with a heroin addiction is still taking a dose that is either too powerful or has been mixed with a dangerous toxin.

Take recent heroin overdose deaths in Atlanta.   Police found two men dead after using heroin the night before.   Forensics experts agreed that these men did seem to take enough of the drug to warrant death - and that the cause was likely to be an unusually strong form of the drug that had come up from Mexico.

More and more, people are dying from a heroin overdose because:

• They bought a package of heroin that was cut in such a way that was very potent.
• The drugs were cheap and therefore mistaken to be “weaker” in quality
• The heroin was mixed with poisonous chemicals when cut by dealers or suppliers.

Regardless of the reasons, hundreds of people each month are dying as a result.   Heroin, like current crops of marijuana, is much stronger than it used to be.  But unlike powerful marijuana, heroin that is too much for the individual can be lethal.

In the past, police have been able to trace dangerous shipments of heroin by visiting emergency rooms in the days after the drugs hit the streets.   The result was always a fascinating cross section of people - most of whom would never have been linked together were it not for their shared heroin substance abuse.

There are just too many risks involved with heroin to continue using.  If you, or someone you know has developed a heroin addiction, contact a drug rehab program that knows how to treat opiate addiction.   With the powerful, potentially deadly heroin hitting our streets, every time you use is like playing Russian roulette.