Heroin: From drug to abuse

Abstract

Heroin is one of the oldest and most famous among narcotic drugs, whose abuse dates back to ancient times. Chemically, heroin is diacetylmorphine and was synthesized for the first time in 1874. After attempts to use it as a drug, heroine quickly has become the subject of abuse and a prohibited substance. There are four areas of the world production of heroin: South America, Mexico, Southwest and Southeast Asia. Serbia is located on the so-called 'Balkan route of drugs, ' and heroin from Afghanistan usually passes through Serbia. Heroin is the most common drug after cannabis in Serbia. This paper gives an overview of the contemporary tendencies of smuggling heroin, both in Serbia and in the world and makes interpretation of the results of analyses of heroin samples in accredited laboratories of the National Criminal-Technical Centre within the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia for the period 2010 - 2015. The aim was to provide an overview of some activities undertaken by the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia, in the field of combating trafficking and abuse of heroin. An analysis of the data has shown that the largest quantities of this particular drug in the Republic of Serbia are confiscated at border crossings. The research has shown that the area of Belgrade is the most prominent part of Serbia where heroin is smuggled, while the declining trend of heroin abuse was recorded in the North of Serbia, due to the ever-present new psychoactive substances. The largest quantities of seized heroine were mostly in the base format, and the most, so-called daily seizures, are a mixture of heroin with diluents. Purity of heroin samples seized in the territory of Serbia varies, reaching over 40% share in the heroin mixtures. According to the data obtained by this research, smuggling of heroin shows an increasing trend in Serbia for the analysed period. By comparing the EMCDDA data with the data obtained in this study, it can be concluded that there has been a transition in the trend of heroin smuggling and that it has been an intensification of the heroin smuggling process just across the Balkan route.