Clear cut heroin has usually a distinct smell or none at all. Cheaper quality ones are visibly darker in color and many times can imitate the smell of vinegar. Some of these include brown heroin and black tar heroin always mixed with unknown chemicals and substances.
The cheapest quality of heroin is black tar heroin because it has a purity content of less than 20%. Meaning 80% of it is just a concoction of different chemicals to increase quantity, and to make it more addictive. These additives can range from cotton to rubber to boot polish to various other carcinogens.
When all of these are mixed together, then you get the distinct vinegar smell which is the strongest in black tar heroin. But it is also debated that geographical location also matters in the smell making process. To the point where a study deduced that heroin on the east coast smells different than the heroin on the west coast.
Heroin Cutters
Cutting other substances with heroin is an extremely common practice that is done for a number of reasons. And that practice makes the drug even more dangerous. Because you can never get 100% pure heroin without spending a lot of money. So to match the demand, the purity is decreased considerably to increase the quantity. Here are some of the things that are added to heroin before selling:
- Fentanyl
- Shoe polish
- Dirt
- Quinine
- Rat poison
What Does Heroin Look Like?
It is very easy to be confused as to whether the substance in front of you is heroin or not because it has different variations and many people lack the knowledge about it too. Questions like “what color is heroin?” and “what it looks like” are just some of the few in this big database of questions.
The purest form of heroin is white, but because it is cut with so many chemicals and narcs that it can easily change color and texture. The most common colors are white, black or brown and a tar-like texture.
Where to buy it?
It is not a prescription drug so you can not purchase it legally anywhere in the world. Various drug dealers and gang members sell it unregulated on the streets. Meaning that they can mix it with any other chemical to make it more harmful
The Types of Heroin
Black Tar Heroin
Black tar is the cheapest kind of heroin available and is mixed with different cheap additives which turn it into a road tar-like substance. Sticky, black, and shiny. You can also assume that the black color comes from boot polish because that is a common additive.
White Heroin
The purest form of heroin is in white color. But that does not imply that if you buy white heroin it may not be cut with different chemicals such as sugar/salt/boric powder/ talcum powder. This is done to increase the quantity to match the demand.
Brown Heroin
Brown heroin is the least potent of the three and the most common. Unlike the rest of the colors/types, brown heroin is smoked and can be tanned in color.
How Is Heroin Packaged
It is usually packaged to be easy to hide and fit. The cheapest heroin is enclosed in rubber and latex such as from balloons and the expensive white heroin may be packed in a crystal clear “baggie” that is airtight and waterproof. Many dealers also wrap it up in capsules to make it harder to distinguish.
How is Heroin Ingested?
There are different methods applied for consuming heroin. Smoking, sniffing, and injecting are the major ones. If you are in doubts of someone who is a user but are unable to find the drug itself, look for the surrounding paraphernalia.
Some of which includes:
- Aluminum foil
- Lighters
- Cotton balls
- Cigarette filters
- Injections
- Shoelaces or rubber pipes to tie the arm for vein isolation.
- Rolling paper
- Smoking pipes which have a slightly white residue attached.