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I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

m.nautil.us

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Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#231

Post by capableweb »

lazide wrote: post #191
capableweb wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing the point of the article a bit. Everyone knows Heroin is dangerous and it's iterated on in the article as well. Only responsible and healthy individuals should self-use drugs, generally speaking. Then you can also argue that you might not have lost your friends only because of Heroin the substance, but also how people with heroin addiction is "treated" and frowned upon in society. I think what…

Who decides that someone is a responsible and healthy adult? Do we have any data on how many responsible and healthy adults try heroin? Anecdata and broad brush strokes of course - In my experience anyway, the actually responsible and heathy adults I know haven’t felt the need to use heroin. The people who somehow are able to delude themselves into thinking they are responsible and healthy while obviously in cripplin…

> Who decides that someone is a responsible and healthy adult?

You do. It's not up to someone to decide, you're responsible for your own body and your own decisions to improve/harm it.

I don't think they are saying advising governments to setup some sort of screening process for this. It's more for the people who are interested in the drugs themselves. When I first started getting interested in drugs, many pushed the idea that I should be psychologically healthy first (mostly because my first interest was psychedelics and I have good and well-meaning friends). I think that's what the article is trying to signal here.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#232

Post by [deleted] »

flatiron wrote: post #192
ChrisRR wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll admit that is an insane amount that I wasn't expecting, but something about those numbers just feels off. Like 10 drinks a day? Many people don't even drink that much water Maybe we're getting a very different view of the US from the UK, but despite all of America's flaws and how weak the beer is, it seems so unexpected to me that 1/10 of people are opening a new drink every 90 minutes and somehow managing to ho…

if someone drinks from 5pm-10pm one can of beer every 30 minutes thats 10 drinks. they could easily wake up at 7am, hold down a job and rinse and repeat. a 30 rack of miller light (my beer of choice) is $22 which is 73 cents a beer so thats ~$7.50 a day on beer. obviously there are cheaper routes (buying $10 handles of vodka for instance). so at least in america, price really isn't a factor here. and holding down a j…

[deleted]

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#233

Post by jboog »

coryrc wrote: post #201
sillysaurusx wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, after all, interviewing a sex worker is dangerous too. People might have a bunch of sex and catch some nasty diseases. I think that's the logic, anyway. It's ironic that most people here are in the camp of "decriminalize drugs! Oh wait, no, not these drugs, just some drugs."

As Portugal shows, decriminalizing drugs reduces their use. The position you are mocking is actually consistent.

I'm not sure we can take the results of a single experiment in an incredibly homogenous tiny country in Europe to mean an outcome is replicable across the world.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#234

Post by n4r9 »

ChrisRR wrote: post #209
flatiron wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if someone drinks from 5pm-10pm one can of beer every 30 minutes thats 10 drinks. they could easily wake up at 7am, hold down a job and rinse and repeat. a 30 rack of miller light (my beer of choice) is $22 which is 73 cents a beer so thats ~$7.50 a day on beer. obviously there are cheaper routes (buying $10 handles of vodka for instance). so at least in america, price really isn't a factor here. and holding down a j…

Even if you ignore the price and how fast drinking once every half hour for 5 hours straight seems, that's 13.86 units of alcohol every day. So 10% of the population are in a state of being permanently hungover? It just seems odd that in the UK, binge drinking is considered to be an issue, and yet a significant percentage of the US population is drinking the equivalent of a night out on a daily basis.

It's been estimated that during the "Gin Craze" of the early 18th Century, the average Londoner was drinking a pint of (strong) gin every three days.

the-east-end.co.uk/the-gin-craze

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#235

Post by 3131s »

fingerlocks wrote: post #153
rmac wrote: post #5

Man, I read this as someone who tried to use opioids and I just couldn't chip. It spiraled into full blown physical dependence. I guess i'm the type with an underlying psychiatric illness which drove my usage and denial. That there exists people like this person who can chip (controlled use of opiates) always intrigues me -- as this drug was the ultimate pathway to euphoria and thus I became the mouse hitting the but…

Because it’s not the ultimate pathway to euphoria for everyone. Some of us don’t like the “sinking into oblivion” feeling of that class of drugs. I don’t want to feel like my IQ has been sliced in half. Really hate it actually. The dragon to chase is of the functional businessman’s variety- cocaine. I’d rather take something that enhances my life experience, turns conversation in liquid gold oozing from mouth. Opiate…

Yeah, I've done heroin, morphine, oxycodone, opium, and a few others in the past and never felt any pull to do them.

But I love cocaine, psychedelics, and weed though, and I have been somewhat addicted to all three at different times in my life. I specifically wouldn't ever get drunk if I didn't have weed to go with it, as that's the only way to make alcohol any fun for me.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#236

Post by [deleted] »

ChrisRR wrote: post #183
SamBam wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His assertion the 70% of all drug users including alcohol and prescription users aren't addicted if anything seems extremely low to me. I'd say the vast majority of my friends drink alcohol and are more than likely on prescription drugs but I don't think any of them are addicts Actually, I'm not sure. 30% of alcohol drinkers being addicted might be roughly right (though surprising to me as well). In the US, 50% of…

I'll admit that is an insane amount that I wasn't expecting, but something about those numbers just feels off. Like 10 drinks a day? Many people don't even drink that much water Maybe we're getting a very different view of the US from the UK, but despite all of America's flaws and how weak the beer is, it seems so unexpected to me that 1/10 of people are opening a new drink every 90 minutes and somehow managing to ho…

[deleted]

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#237

Post by mod »

ChrisRR wrote: post #209
flatiron wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if someone drinks from 5pm-10pm one can of beer every 30 minutes thats 10 drinks. they could easily wake up at 7am, hold down a job and rinse and repeat. a 30 rack of miller light (my beer of choice) is $22 which is 73 cents a beer so thats ~$7.50 a day on beer. obviously there are cheaper routes (buying $10 handles of vodka for instance). so at least in america, price really isn't a factor here. and holding down a j…

Even if you ignore the price and how fast drinking once every half hour for 5 hours straight seems, that's 13.86 units of alcohol every day. So 10% of the population are in a state of being permanently hungover? It just seems odd that in the UK, binge drinking is considered to be an issue, and yet a significant percentage of the US population is drinking the equivalent of a night out on a daily basis.

I own a bar so I figured I'd chime in with some personal observations of my customers:

The bulk of my customers drink 5-7 nights per week. We call them "regulars." They come every night when their shift ends, and most of them stay until close (although they are primarily service industry, so this is 5-7 hours per day). If they have a day off, they often show up earlier.

For these people, I think that one drink every half hour is an understatement. They're having a beer/cocktail every half hour or so, and mixing in shots, jello shots, etc. If they have limited time, they will up their rate of consumption. They're after a specific result.

I have no idea what percentage of the population they represent.

We have a lot of other customers who we see maybe once a week, every other week. Some folks come in to eat our food special and just have a couple beers and go. Stuff like that.

I think that you are probably in the latter group (or the non-drinking group) and so you don't see the former group. I very much agree that the heavy drinkers are not living normal lives; they ARE in fact permanently hungover (or should be--they learn to deal with it in various ways). It's a continuing problem with my own staff, actually.

Anyway, they're out there, they're holding jobs and making children, and they undeniably have a problem with alcohol. But again, I have no idea what percentage of the population they make up. Maybe I'm seeing the worst of the problems--but I don't actually believe that.

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