Opiates
Heroin
Fact: Heroin is a Schedule I Controlled Substance.
Fact: Over 80% of heroin users inject with a partner, yet 80% of the overdose victims found by paramedics are found alone.
Fact: The average heroin addict spends between $150 and $200 per day to maintain a heroin addiction
Fact: Heroin can be injected into a vein, into a muscle, smoked in a pipe, inhaled as smoke through a straw, known as “chasing the dragon,” or snorted as powder.
Fact: Heroin is a highly addictive and rapidly acting opiate (a drug that is derived from opium). Specifically, heroin is produced from morphine, which is a principal component of opium. Opium is a naturally occurring substance that is extracted from the seedpod of the opium poppy.
Fact: Individuals who abuse heroin over time develop a tolerance for the drug, meaning that they must use increasingly larger doses to achieve the same intensity or effect they experienced when they first began using the drug. Heroin ceases to produce feelings of pleasure. In users who develop tolerance they must continue taking the drug simply to put off the sickness that comes from withdrawal.
Fact: Withdrawal symptoms include craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, and vomiting - "Dope sick"
Fact: Heroin users who inject the drug expose themselves to additional risks, including contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B and C, and other blood-borne viruses.
Fact: Chronic users who inject heroin also risk scarred or collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and liver and kidney disease.
Fact: Herin is also known as smack, dirt, mud, H, horse, junk, big H, dope, Chiva, diesel
OxyContin 
Fact: Oxycontin is the time-release form of oxycodone, usually prescribed for chronic and severe pain. Because it contains a larger amount of oxycodone, it has become one of the most abused prescription drugs in the United States.
Fact: Street names for OxyContin include Oxy, O.C., killer and hillbilly heroin.
Fact: OxyContin abusers either crush the tablet and ingest or snort it or they dilute it in water and inject it. Crushing or diluting the tablet disarms the timed-release action of the medication.
Fact: Crushing OxyContin can give the user a fatal dose
Fact: The NIDA reports that in some areas of the country, OxyContin abuse rates are higher than heroin abuse.
Fact: OxyContin is a central nervous system depressant and overdose can cause respiratory failure and death
Fact: Oxycontin withdrawal symptoms can begin as soon as six hours after the last dose and can last up to one week.
Fact: People who have gone through OxyContin withdrawal compare the process to the intensity of heroin withdrawal.
Vicodin
Fact: Vicodin is an opiate and cental nervous system depressant.
Fact: Symptoms of withdrawal can include restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps (“cold turkey”), and involuntary leg movements - someone who is "kicking"
Fact: Nationwide Vicodin use has quadrupled in the last ten years, while emergency room visits attributed to Vicodin abuse soared 500 percent.
Fact: Vicodin is one of more than 200 other products that contain hydrocodone--is regulated by state and federal law, but it is not controlled as closely as other powerful painkillers.
Fact: The lack of regulation makes Vicodin vulnerable to abuse and addiction through forged prescriptions, theft, over-prescription, and "doctor shopping."
Fact: Vicodin pills have been sold for $2 to $10 per tablet and $20 to $40 per 8 oz bottle on the street.
Methadone
Fact: German scientists synthesized methadone during World War II because of a shortage of morphine.
Fact: Introduced into the United States in 1947 as an analgesic (Dolophinel), it is primarily used today for the treatment of narcotic addiction.
Fact: The withdrawal syndrome develops more slowly and is less severe but more prolonged than that associated with heroin withdrawal
Fact: Some who use a methadone treatment plan as a means to stop heroin addiction say that the methadone addiction is far worse than the heroin.
Fact: Methadone used to control narcotic addiction is frequently encountered on the illicit market and has been associated with a number of overdose deaths.
Fact: Methadone is available as a tablet, oral solution, or injectable liquid
Fact: Methadone does not produce the euphoric rush associated with those other drugs; thus, these users often consume dangerously large quantities of methadone in a vain attempt to attain the desired effect - and subsequently overdose.
Fact: Methadone overdoses are associated with severe respiratory depression, decreases in heart rate and blood pressure, coma, and death.
Fact: Methadone is a Schedule II substance under the Controlled Substances Act.
Fact: Abuse can lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.