I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem • Hacker News Board

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

#281

Post by Uberphallus » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

watwut wrote: post #200

fingerlocks wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it’s a total myth. Not sure why you’re being downvoted. My wife and I kept a bottle of oxy in our bathroom for a few years, taking it only occasionally. No one got addicted because neither of us wanted to keep taking it. A prerequisite for addiction is that one must believe the drug makes them feel “normal” or functional in some way. “I can’t live with this pain - I need it.” If instead you as a user go into the…

It is not myth. Some people get instantly addicted to heroin, others can continue using casually for years. We dont really know what exactly is different, but it cant be psychological only. The withdrawal symptoms are physical, not just how you feel emotionally.

It's a myth.

My cousin is a social worker, dealing with addicts. I've done heroin myself. I know heroin addicts, though not as many as he does.

We both agree: almost all addicts have a backdrop of broken families, poverty, unemployment, some kind of trauma or just a general lack of opportunities in life. Heroin makes all that go away... for a while. How could they NOT become addicted?

The myth is about shifting blame from social inequality onto a drug. The addiction is but a symptom of a societal disease.

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

#282

Post by waterhouse » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

jimmaswell wrote: post #175

yladiz wrote: post #25

> Hart strives to “present a more realistic image of the typical drug user: a responsible professional who happens to use drugs in his pursuit of happiness.” I think this is likely wrong. I guess it partly depends on the definition of a "drug user" (like, does it include alcohol drinkers) but I would be very surprised if most heroin users are responsible professionals - how can you do anything when you're high on her…

> but I would be very surprised if most heroin users are responsible professionals - how can you do anything when you're high on heroin? The rock scene of the 80s comes to mind. Lots of them did it af the time while they were touring.

The Guns N' Roses song "Mr. Brownstone" is essentially about this (brownstone being slang for heroin). It seems it worked for some time, but eventually...

  I get up around seven
  Get out of bed around nine
  ...
  I used to do a little but a little wouldn't do it
  So the little got more and more
  I just keep tryin' to get a little better
  Said a little better than before
  ...
  Now I get up around whenever
  I used to get up on time

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

#283

Post by mmlkrx » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 4:32 PM UTC

There is a subreddit called /r/MuseumOfReddit that is "dedicated to cataloguing the posts and comments that will go down in reddit history."

One of the more chilling posts on there[1] is the account of a user who randomly tried Heroin one day, got addicted within 2 weeks, overdosed and was clinically dead within a month, got revived and admitted, came clean, then posted an update to his story 7 years later.

I would personally suggest trying meditation first before trying opioids to alter consciousness and feel euphoric.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/MuseumOfReddit/comments/68srty/spon...

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

#284

Post by swirepe » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

supr_strudl wrote: post #86

quattrofan wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you drink alcohol? If so you're a drug user... We've just decided for myriad, commercial, political and historical reasons to legitimise some and make others illegal. Note I never used the word "scientific" in that sentence.

I don't drink alcohol. The best advocates of drug use are drug users. They're quite passionate about it. Where I come from, they make fun of you if you don't drink and sing a song about how you're "too weak to drink." Every occasion calls for a drink: childbirth, Friday, getting married, getting divorced. It is so common that you're the weird one for not drinking.

For what it's worth, I don't think it's weird that you don't drink alcohol.

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

#285

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

jboog wrote: post #218

ChrisRR wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When you're a high-functioning alcohol like we're talking you get to the point you can down a 12 pack of beer in a night and feel relatively fine the next morning. Maybe a slight headache or mild hangover but nothing like the bender hangovers non-alcoholics have where they are bedridden most of the day. I've since cut back a lot but in my worst post-college days I could drink the equivalent of 8-10 drinks in a night…

[deleted]

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

#286

Post by pksebben » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

treeman79 wrote: post #118

throwaway_du wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used drugs recreationally until I had children. During this time I knew many colleagues that used drugs every week. Some used amphetamines and mdma at parties. Some used morphine substitutes day time during the weekends, and on a few occasions some were high during work hours (the last few hours on friday). They were very productive. Just because you use a hard drug does not mean that you have to take a large dose.…

Bio parents of my adopted child used them recreationally. They used them all through kids childhood. Really screwed em up. Every single person in group homes and foster system had same sort of tale.

Does that mean the substances are to blame? IMHO, people who would create a responsibility for themselves (child) and then ignore that responsibility have problems above and beyond how they recreate. Their indulgence is a symptom, not a cause.

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

#287

Post by tmp-20210218 » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

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, cocaine doesn't have the awesomest rep either - a crack addiction is just another way of temporarily getting away from something problematic.

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

#288

Post by woeirua » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

jboog wrote: post #223

Grustaf wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, how many people will see this headline and rush off to a back alley to buy a shot of heroin from some junkie?

That's not the problem though. The issues is "drug decriminalization" people treating addictions like it's not a real problem for many people. Many of these folks want it to get to a point where you can quite easily buy heroin and suffer no legal consequences. I'm not saying our drug laws are just or can't be reformed but the fact that heroin is illegal prevents a LOT of people from using it. How many people will the…

The decriminalization folks recognize for the most part that addiction is real. The difference is that they want to use taxes on legal drug sales to fund rehab clinics and treatment programs. The people who want to maintain the status quo want to throw users in jail and forget about them. We already know for certain that throwing people in jail does not solve addiction. So why wouldn't we at least try the alternative?

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

#289

Post by conradev » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

jboog wrote: post #223

Grustaf wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, how many people will see this headline and rush off to a back alley to buy a shot of heroin from some junkie?

That's not the problem though. The issues is "drug decriminalization" people treating addictions like it's not a real problem for many people. Many of these folks want it to get to a point where you can quite easily buy heroin and suffer no legal consequences. I'm not saying our drug laws are just or can't be reformed but the fact that heroin is illegal prevents a LOT of people from using it. How many people will the…

The central point of the article is actually not “let’s decriminalize drugs”. It is “drug addiction is not brain disease”, which seems like a reasonable argument to me.

I don’t know if you read it, but it also talks about how many deaths are from bad education (not understanding drug interactions, i.e. between two depressants), and bad drugs (i.e. lacing heroin with fentanyl) with no easy way for users to test their drugs.

It further goes on to discuss that addiction treatment in the US is terrible precisely because it focuses on the drugs as a pathology and does not consider the holistic person or helping the person solve their underlying problems.

Progressive drug policy isn’t “legalize it all”, it is “prevent needless deaths and treat addiction properly”. It has been for some time. Here are garden variety articles I found about these policies being implemented in the wild:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/01/04/allow-festiv...

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/statemen...

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

#290

Post by umvi » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

sillysaurusx wrote: post #196

loves_mangoes wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey there! Hand raised, and happy to disagree =) Giving people the autonomy to live their life, means there are many dangerous things you can say about things that are legal, and should be legal. I believe people should be responsible enough to drive a car, drink alcohol, and with or without prescription take a drug without risking a prison sentence. Now my advice is: It's not okay to drive while extremely tired, it'…

Happy to hear your disagreement! (Also, please have a wonderful day this fine Thursday.) The thing is, wouldn't you agree that if something isn't criminal, then it should be fine to talk about the act of doing that thing? Because that's all this interview seems to be.

Ok, cigarettes are legal.

Say I am a prominent professor at a university and I write an article about how I use cigarettes responsibly and how I'm not addicted and that tons of people use cigarettes without getting addicted. I also note that it's a great way for me (and implicitly others) to find happiness. I then publish my article to influence millions.

So then what's wrong when critics say my article is dangerous and caution readers to take it with a grain of salt?