361–370 of 692 posts
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You just threw out your own anecdotal nonsense. Responsible drug users are invisible to society and to judgemental people like you. You have no data to discredit it.
Responsible drug users sounds like an oxymoron. Is there any data that shows those people even exist?
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Alcohol is not any better.
Good grief, yes it is. It's not nearly as addictive. It's not nearly as deadly. It's much easier to control dosage. It has modes of consumption that are non-pathological. This is typical of the distorted anglo-saxon view of alcohol as a tool for getting flat-out drunk. This is not how most of the world relates to alcohol, nor is it a healthy relationship with it. Honestly, this says more about you than about booze.
Strangely I know more ex-heroin addicts than ex-alcoholics, and there are way more alcoholics out there, but that's just anecdotal data I guess :)
> It's not nearly as deadly.
Maybe if you leave out all of the DUI and accidents where alcohol played a role, you'd be right, but overall alcohol causes way more damage than heroin. While David Nutt ranked heroin as more addictive than alcohol, overall he found alcohol more harmful.[0] Precisely because even though it doesn't harm one as much as heroin, it's way more likely that you harm others with alcohol.
> It's much easier to control dosage.
Actually no. Lots of things affect gastrointestinal absorption of alcohol. Just compare a few shots on empty stomach vs after a meal. Also don't get me started with the absurdly long and not always obvious list of drug interactions that alcohol has.
Heroin, assuming known purity, will work roughly the same, either snorted, smoked or injected. If you make a point about its purity, that's a consequence of its legal status. Most, if not all of the interactions are self-evident (other CNS depressants).
> It has modes of consumption that are non-pathological.
I guess you have preconceptions about what heroin use implies. How is unwinding after work a pathological use of heroin vs whiskey?
> Honestly, this says more about you than about booze.
Ah, ad hominem to finish, a classic.
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.
You just threw out your own anecdotal nonsense. Responsible drug users are invisible to society and to judgemental people like you. You have no data to discredit it.
Even more so, _nobody_ wants to hear about responsible drug users, because that'll contradict the general discourse.
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…
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…
Opioids are insanely and ~~instantly~~ quickly addictive. I accidentally became addicted after knee surgery. When the pain subsided, I stopped taking them, and within a day I found myself curled up in a ball and wanting to rip my own skin off. It's really true when addicts describe it as "being uncomfortable in your own skin". The moment I realized I was experiencing withdrawal, I flushed the meds down the toilet and…
FWIW, good on you for recognizing that you're one of the third group and getting off of it entirely before the addiction gets even worse.
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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…
> Only responsible and healthy individuals should self-use drugs, generally speaking. The funny thing I've been reading the article and the tone of it reminded me of heroin addicts who was not hit by their addiction heavily yet. I mean, Carl Hart thinks he is a responsible user, that he have an ability to decide for himself. It doesn't seem so for me. It is hard to tell, having as a data only one interview with him.…
Having known someone who was a responsible, highly educated adult with a fantastic career who died of a heroin overdose, this whole article sounded eerily familiar.
I know if I had a ready supply of clean heroin I would probably not just take it once in a while. Ive never done heroin, and that is because I know how much I like hydrocodone and its much weaker chemical cousins. I also know 2 people severely harmed by heroin use.(Brothers in fact) Maybe if they had a regimented way of copping it and safe supply of needles one of them wouldnt have Hep C now.
The real problem with treating opiates or other drugs as a public health problem is that the US does not have that sort of infrastructure set up to deal with the problem. Why do you think the police are called in now for drug problems(non criminal)? There is literally nobody else to deal with it. I dont agree with locking up addicts, but is checking them into a hospital with no insurance a viable option?
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…
Opioids are insanely and ~~instantly~~ quickly addictive. I accidentally became addicted after knee surgery. When the pain subsided, I stopped taking them, and within a day I found myself curled up in a ball and wanting to rip my own skin off. It's really true when addicts describe it as "being uncomfortable in your own skin". The moment I realized I was experiencing withdrawal, I flushed the meds down the toilet and…
And I say this as someone who's plenty happy with drugs legalization, who likes the occasional MDMA, and who drinks plenty of alcohol. I guess I'm lucky I never run the risk of opiates addiction, because despite all that I have no desire to every touch the stuff again.
> One of the major reasons people can’t overcome it is because we’re not very good at treating addiction in this country. I am often wondering about how addiction "feels". I don't consider myself being addicted to anything, and always wonder how an addiction actually manifests itself. Is it a pain? Is it comparable to being extremely hungry or thirsty? Slightly related: a few years ago, I overheard a conversation bet…
It depends on the addiction. Opiate addiction comes along with flu like symptoms, insomnia, restless legs/arms AKA crazy legs, and an ever present anxiety that you really really want some that will make you do some weird shit just to get it. Other addictions are more subtle, some worse, but all of them I've experienced have the same feeling of stress/anxiety that can only be cured by the vice they are caused by. Many…
Sure, but one can be dependent on e.g. SSRIs or SNRIs. But they aren't addictive!
Dependence + addiction is a special problem with opiates, I think you can die from withdrawals?