9781422270585

HEROIN

WHAT ARE DRUGS? Are Drugs Made? Around the world, most illegal drugs, and many of the pharmaceutical drugs that are made and consumed, come from plants. Marijuana comes from the flowers of the cannabis plant. Heroin is refined from the juice of opium poppy pods. Cocaine comes from the leaves of the coca plant. Some mushrooms contain psychoactive substances, along with peyote, a type of cactus, and ayahuasca, a psychedelic drug distilled from a vine. Drug production starts with agricultural cultivation of the plants that can then be harvested and refined into drugs. Some drugs are consumed in their basic plant form, including marijuana flowers and the juice of the opium poppy. Indigenous people in Peru chew the leaves of the coca plant for energy. Other drugs, like cocaine or heroin, are refined and concentrated from basic plant materials to increase their potency.

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