It was someone who knew what was in the lunchbox for sure. It may have been a new truck that
almost no one would recognize as being his, but I think you answered your own question: who would smash a window to get at a crappy old lunchbox? The answer? No one would... at least no one who didn't already know what was inside the crappy old lunchbox. Just my two cents...
But it would metabolize into morphine anyway after crossing the blood brain barrier. Found this quickly: "After crossing the blood-brain barrier, heroin is metabolized into morphine, which actively binds to opiate receptors in the brain producing the high."
So the only difference is where the heroin metabolizes into morphine. If it metabolizes into morphine
after crossing the blood brain barrier, then the user experiences "the rush" and whatever, but if it metabolizes in the syringe or anywhere
outside the blood brain barrier, then it takes longer for those receptors to be filled and so the high appears weaker. Isn't that right?
I've just never been under the assumption that heroin was anything at all like oxycodone, which metabolizes into oxymorphone, of course, and I believe a few other active metabolites as well, but is in and of itself active. Heroin is simply morphine with two acetyl groups that help to propel it across the blood brain barrier more quickly, but it's the morphine that's the active metabolite.
You know what? Maybe I'm talking out of my ass lol... here, I found this: "Replacing the hydrogen-bonding -OH groups with -OCOCH3 makes heroin much less soluble in water than morphine, but more soluble in non-polar solvents, like oils and fats. Therefore heroin has to be injected directly into the bloodstream, but once there it can pass rapidly through the blood-brain barrier which normally prevents the passage of water-soluble and large molecules. As a result it is much more potent than morphine, but its effect does not last as long. Again, once the heroin molecule is absorbed into the body, the acetyl groups are removed, reforming morphine."
So it's what? Like super-moprhine, then?
EDIT: OK I think I understand it now. So basically, it's still morphine any which way you look at it, but it's morphine that one might think of as being "more potent" because its two additional acetyl groups allow it to cross the blood brain barrier more effectively than regular old morphine
without the two acetyl groups.
ANOTHER EDIT: So the difference between heroin and morphine is essentially the difference between a .357 and a .38 cartridge. The bullet diameter is the same, but you've changed the length of the case and how much powder you can put behind it. In other words, it's still morphine, but it's "more powerful" now with its two additional acetyl groups. Right?
