Heroin is a highly addictive, illegal drug that can quickly lead to dependence and also cause fatal overdose. The current opioid crisis in the U.S. involves misuse of both prescription opioid painkillers and illicit heroin. These drugs are very similar to each other, and as access to the prescriptions has become increasingly restricted, people dependent on them have turned to heroin for a high or to avoid withdrawal. Understanding how long heroin stays in the body is important, because misjudging the duration of its presence can lead to overdose.
While heroin actually breaks down quite rapidly, the resulting breakdown products can persist for much longer. The intense and euphoric effects of heroin are short-lived, which can cause an individual to seek out another dose while the byproducts of heroin are still in the body. Taking too much heroin can easily lead to a fatal overdose, because it causes respiration to slow down and even stop. Getting treated for heroin use disorder starts with detox, the time during which the drug and its byproducts leave the body, but although the drug may be gone symptoms of withdrawal persist, making quitting very difficult.
