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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

#271

Post by moron4hire »

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…

I don't know. A lot of my "working-class" childhood acquaintances and extended family goes through at least 2 six-packs of Miller Light in a night.

Now, in the case of my particular family members, I wouldn't exactly say they don't have a problem. Most of them live on the edge of poverty, which would be much less of a problem if they didn't drink and smoke at least a pack of cigarettes a day.

But most of these folks who drink massive amounts of the sort of beers-I-wouldn't-touch-with-a-ten-foot-pole are mostly functional in society. By that, I mean, they don't have a monopoly on family and money problems. Shockingly few people have their shit together in the way that we talk about when we talk about the dangers of addiction.

Like I said, I don't know. It's not very clear/cut-and-dried to me.

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

#272

Post by altcognito »

yboris wrote: post #188
altcognito wrote: post #103

Because one person thinks he has it under control at this time, I don't see how advocating for wider acceptance of drug classes that have killed and destroyed the lives of millions every year is even a story that deserves a platform. This was a good story to flag.

It is interesting to me how ready we sometimes are to dismiss others' self-reports. This is akin to doctors in early 1900's (and even now) simply ignoring women's self reports of pain. When a person reports something about their own life and internal state, you need to have overwhelming evidence before you can dismiss what they are saying. On what grounds do you dismiss the author's claims about their life? He clearl…

I'm not dismissing his account, so you should read my comment closer.

I don't think I would use getting published as evidence that somebody "has their life together". Again, I don't care if he does have his life together. It may entirely fake, it can be temporary, and it can be one account.

Look, I'm wholly for the idea of not shaming people who use drugs. I am also wholly against treating drugs which have established track records of destroying lives as recreational or not a problem when used regularly, especially to avoid personal problems. So I'm strongly against publishing essays which tell a soft story to play down the millions of other stories, which this absolutely does.

Why doesn't he talk about how this impairs his motor or thinking? Is he somehow magic, isn't the entire point to alter his conciousness? No, it's all positive about drugs. Ridiculous. Why doesn't he point to the side effects? Using alcohol as an example of how "harmless" drugs are is obscene. Alcohol destroys millions of lives every year as well.

If he wants to sell tolerance of people's choices in the name of the freedom to ruin your own life, then so be it. Don't soft peddle me bullshit.

Could we have a story about all the men and women who had their entire lives destroyed by drugs as a counter example?

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

#273

Post by [deleted] »

lostgame wrote: post #246
umvi wrote: post #111

> “My heroin use is as rational as my alcohol use” What an incredibly dangerous idea to promote. Do not mess with opioids. You think you are in control, until you are not.

Ugh. Come on. Be part of the solution, not the problem. We should be promoting safe use and harm reduction education , not these bullshit blanket statements such as 'do not mess with opioids'/'say no to drugs', and stop using them quick. Otherwise the people who inevitably will/do use, only hear and have only heard, 'don't do it to start' or get ostracized instead of getting the help they need or the education they n…

[deleted]

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

#274

Post by fbelzile »

nimbius wrote: post #179
joemazerino wrote: post #117

This is legitimately dangerous reporting. Heroin is ranked in the top 3 of addictive chemicals and all this article reports about is this anecdotal nonsense. I've too many friends to Heroin to know the reality of the drug.

Fully agree. Carl is a white collar professor. The worst thing that can happen if his drug indulgence becomes a problem is he knocks over the water cooler or loses his job. I work a blue collar job servicing heavy diesel engines. Casual hard drug users are aggravatingly cavalier to work alongside. They forget important things constantly. They show up late and lose things often. You'll spend all day repeating things t…

Not defending drug use at work, but if you're to be fired it should be for the performance related issues you mentioned caused by the drug, not because of the drug itself.

Edit for more context:

Depending on the drug, substances consumed outside of working hours would still show up in a drug test. Firing someone for something they do outside of work shouldn't be acceptable.

If you can prove they consumed drugs that would impair their ability to perform their job during working hours, that'd be a valid cause for dismissal. Drug tests don't measure that precisely enough though.

Not to mention, drug tests are not infallible. They can come back positive for morphine if you eat a poppy seed bagel in the morning [1].

[1] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/poppy-seeds-alter-drug-tes...

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

#275

Post by tmp-20210218 »

nobleach wrote: post #229
dariusj18 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like the textbook overconfidence that addicts have. They all think they have a complete understanding of their body and the chemicals they use.

A few years ago, right here on HackerNews, I made some comment about heroin being extremely dangerous and addictive. I had a gentleman with a Throwaway account come at me with a "cool story bro, but I use heroin often, and I hold down a high-paying job" response. Basically, he told me that I'm an idiot and I should stop spreading FUD. I looked at his other threads like a year later, and the poor dude, sure enough is…

probably me, although i can't remember the password to that account, so you'll have to take my word for it. but yeah, from a perspective of a couple years on, heroin addiction is fucking terrible. i mean, heroin's nice and all, but i was an idiot ;)

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

#276

Post by crescentfresh »

alexashka wrote: post #145

There's an excellent recent Joe Rogan podcast episode on Spotify with Carl Hart - the fella in this article, for those who want to get a more comprehensive understanding of his position. He's basically for personal freedom and responsibility , drugs included. His position is really hard to argue with, given the disaster that alcohol prohibition and this 'war on drugs' has been. The word heroin has triggered a lot of…

More recently he appeared on the Toure Show podcast: https://play.acast.com/s/toureshow/dr.carlhart-idodrugs

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

#277

Post by akiselev »

jboog wrote: post #233
coryrc wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We can, however, easily take the opposite conclusion: drug criminalization has been an unmitigated disaster in almost every country it’s been tried short of a few incredibly homogenous countries like Japan and countries for which no real data is available like North Korea.

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

#278

Post by GordonS »

nimbius wrote: post #179
joemazerino wrote: post #117

This is legitimately dangerous reporting. Heroin is ranked in the top 3 of addictive chemicals and all this article reports about is this anecdotal nonsense. I've too many friends to Heroin to know the reality of the drug.

Fully agree. Carl is a white collar professor. The worst thing that can happen if his drug indulgence becomes a problem is he knocks over the water cooler or loses his job. I work a blue collar job servicing heavy diesel engines. Casual hard drug users are aggravatingly cavalier to work alongside. They forget important things constantly. They show up late and lose things often. You'll spend all day repeating things t…

The author is not suggesting you take heroin at work, any more than it would be acceptable to drink alcohol at work.

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

#279

Post by pdovy »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #222
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…

> 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 [laughs in Belgian Trappiste at the English ales] Is beer in the US still as bad as it was 10 years ago? I understood it now has a huge craft-/micro brewery scene with some very drinkable APA/IPA's? Or is this just a tiny fraction of the market still?

Good quality domestic craft beer and imports are typically very easy to find in most populated areas in the US in my experience. Granted I'm in a big city (Chicago) but the "big box" liquor store here has a whole aisle of Belgian imports, for example.

That said, a quick googling shows that 2/3 of the American beer market is still dominated by non-craft domestics (AKA your cheap, watery lagers like Bud/Miller). Even amongst the craft segment it's definitely the case as another commenter pointed out that IPAs are overrepresented for whatever reason.

I think where we're still really lagging behind is quality of beers at your average bar. If you know where to go you can find great selection but the average bar probably still has just a handful of decent non-domestic-lager offerings, likely in cans/bottles. In comparison to when I lived in the UK and it seemed like any corner pub would have a couple great draft ales .. it's not the same.

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

#280

Post by jshevek »

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #268
jshevek wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That you cannot imagine an approach doesn't mean an approach doesn't exist. It may be possible to form a generalized understanding of an individuals predisposition based on testing with other substances, just as one example.

You’re still taking a substantial risk when forming that generalized understanding, and then another substantial risk when you start making conclusions from that general understanding. And for what?

My point is only that you strongly implied a fallacious argument, which damages your ability to reason on a topic.
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