Comparison of Heroin and Substance D

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1. Introduction Heroin is considered to be one of the deadliest drugs in the world today. While reading Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly, I noticed many similarities between heroin and the drug that is described in the book - Substance D. Both of these drugs are highly addictive and dangerous. Users find it extremely difficult to stop using them — even after trying them for just the first time. There are many more similarities and also differences between heroin and Substance D, and the aim of this paper is to find and research them in depth, focusing on the situation of these drugs in America. Section 2 deals with properties of heroin and Substance D, section 3 deals with positive and negative effects they have on addicts, section 4 focuses on overcoming the addiction, section 5 compares the two drugs and section 6 summarizes the paper. 2. Basic properties of heroin and Substance D 2.1 Heroin Heroin (diacetylmorphine, morphine diacetate or diamorphine hydrochloride), colloquially also known as Smack, Junk, Dope, H, Horse and Black is produced by processing raw opium, a natural substance found in oriental opium poppies. It can be either smoked or injected. Heroin is primarily produced in Colombia, Mexico, Southeast Asia, and Afghanistan. It comes in there forms: brown, china white and pharmaceutical heroin. It is most commonly injected, smoked, or snorted. It is a depressant drug – it makes the heart beat more slowly, breathing slows down and blood pressure falls. According to the United Nations Office of Drug Control, in 2005 heroin cost between $40 and $350 per gram retail in the United States. Heroin is illegal to possess and sell in the United States and in most other countries. 2.2 Substance D Substance D, also known as Death, Slow Death, Dumbness, Despair and Desertion is a fictional deadly drug that is described in Philip K. Dick’s

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