What heroin looks like depends on the type of heroin it is. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, there are four main types of heroin, which all look slightly different. The three types are: black tar, white, brown, and brown heroin. These four types are named after their unique looks.

Black Tar Heroin

Black tar heroin looks almost like tar.

Black tar heroin is named for its black appearance. In its powdered form, black tar heroin looks almost like ash. The light fluffy powder flakes easily and resembles a very fine-grained powder. It could easily be mistaken for fireplace ash but it smells radically different. After black tar heroin is heated or if it is extremely fresh and uncut, it resembles shiny black tar. It looks almost liquid in this form. Sometimes this form resembles a black lump. The lump is actually sticky and some describe it as having a gooey consistency.

White Heroin

White heroin is heroin that manufacturers cut with a white powder. This powder can be:

• sugar,
• strychnine,
• sugar substitute, or
• starch.

It can also be cut with something even more dangerous. Manufacturers sometimes cut some forms heroin with things like rat poison and cocaine. The rat poison is just poisonous, particularly in large amounts. When it is cut with cocaine, it is much more addictive than any other time. Cutting it with cocaine has serious respiratory and circulatory consequences such as depressed respiration or heart failure.

The white powder has several different consistencies. The exact way that it looks depends highly on what it is cut with. If it is cut with something and bleached, it has the consistency of beach sand but not the color. If it is cut with sugar, it strongly resembles the sugar that it is cut with. If it is cut with cocaine or another fine white powder it takes on that consistency, this is usually similar to the look and feel of baby or talcum powder.

Although most people assume that the whiter the heroin the more pure it is. This is not true. Heroin’s natural color is actually brown, dark brown, or grey. The problem with white heroin is that it is not anywhere near pure.

Brown Heroin

Brown heroin is the most common form of heroin. People normally use brown heroin for smoking rather than injecting. It is basic and is usually a lot less powerful than the other forms of heroin. It is also less expensive than most other forms of heroin, which is probably why it is one of the more popular versions of it.

Brown heroin is either a brown or tan depending on what the manufacturer put into it. It is generally a course to fine powder sold in small zip lock bags.

What Heroin Abuse Looks Like

Heroin abuse has a look all its own. People who use heroin on a regular basis have:

• track marks on their arms,
• weight loss sometimes to an extreme,
• a lack of hygiene and bathing,
• a lack of hygiene in their living quarters, and
• snarled or unkempt hair and clothing.

Most people who do heroin stop caring about everything but the heroin. They get trapped into a cycle of searching for the drug and using the drug. They neglect everything except for the drug. Heroin abuse looks like they are neglecting their body, mind, and soul.

Fortunately, there is help for a heroin addiction. Realizing that there is a problem is the first step to getting that help. For more information, call us at 1-800-854-3274.