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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

#511

Post by bserge »

vntok wrote: post #348
ajkdhcb2 wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I am one. I have used a lot of stuff, anything I could get my hands on (not "just 'cause", I'm trying to find something to fix specific problems).

And in the end, it's only alcohol and nicotine that have me firmly in their grasp. Perhaps it's just the ease of access.

I believe I could quit nicotine, but not alcohol. I don't even drink a lot. But I do, regularly. I've used way more addictive stuff, and I could go out and buy it tomorrow, but I don't. Kind of funny how it works.

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

#513

Post by jshevek »

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #498
jshevek wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Ok, so basically, since we haven’t proven the opposite, we can’t be sure, regardless of how the situation appears. I think that’s a weak argument in a general sense, but point taken.

No, I'm not arguing that proof is necessary for certainty. I'm pointing out that the implied reasoning is akin to argument from ignorance. We don't have to take a position on a topic if we are ignorant, but we often do so when doing so can be used to justify existing biases.

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

#514

Post by nostromo »

renewiltord wrote: post #499
jimz wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why you'd assume you're the outlier. Never mind the differences between physical and psychological dependence and problem use (which can happen without dependence, and one can be dependent but not using problematically), you personally experienced underwhelming withdrawal effects on multiple drugs that don't all affect the same parts of your brain, and some more physically addictive than others (benzos o…

A fair question. I haven't thought about it deeply. But smoking is a very social habit. No one hides the smoking. And it's really hard to hide because smokers have a sharp odour that's really hard to mask. So among the people I know, I know the smokers (or knew, since vaping wasn't common when I was young and had the habit). So I guess I had a pretty good hold on what the population of smokers was, and so I know most…

I think it's selection bias.

Lots and lots of living people have smoked at some point. However, many (most?) of those people quit smoking at some point.

So, the remaining people are the people that are most addicted, which gives us the impression that tobacco is highly addictive for everyone.

Edit: the CDC says that 62% of people who have ever smoked have quit.

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/cess...

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

#515

Post by chasd00 »

renewiltord wrote: post #414

The fascinating thing about this stuff is that you can have outlier people. For instance, tobacco is supposed to be highly addictive. Well, I picked up smoking from a girlfriend in college and we used to smoke all the time. Like ten cigs a day for a year and a half. Real bad, right? Well, one day, I decided "Meh. I'll just stop" and I did. Not because of any reason. I just chose not to. Now cigarettes are way addicti…

i remember struggling to start smoking tobacco in 8th grade to impress a girl (heh i saw her get sent home for wearing a Metallica Kill'Em All concert shirt, I was instantly in love).

I just couldn't stand it the feel of tabacco. Same goes for weed, i hung around very heavy smokers all during college but just hated the feeling from THC so i never really got into it.

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

#516

Post by bserge »

mabbo wrote: post #134
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…

I can barely control my use of caffeine. Without it, I turn into a raging psychopath. And I'm consuming more and more of it all the time. Heroin terrifies me.

I would say caffeine is easy to quit, but I'm an alcoholic so I understand perfectly. It seems like you don't need it, yet you use it regularly.

Try caffeine pills, they have a cleaner effect with no stomach/intestine troubles. Somewhat easier to quit, too.

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

#517

Post by mfer »

jackric wrote: post #444
mfer wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In many places there are safety issues to deal with. You have to be proactive to avoid an incident. Here's a non-drug related one. In many places road construction companies will disallow workers from wearing headphones. This is because of the heavy machinery and you need to hear the beeps of a machine backing up. Drivers of those do not have good sight around the machinery and large trailers. Headphones on can mean…

Stupid analogy, the worker can be told to remove the headphones during paid hours, non-compliance makes you fired. We are talking about whether what you do outside of work, that is isolated from work, should get you fired.

A few things.

First, I'm attempting to describe how the system works rather than give my opinion on how it should be.

Second, the headphones situation is meant to illustrate how safety plays in. This isn't a "what if" example. People on job sites wearing headphones have died because they missed the warning tones. I am aware of one case, personally.

Safety is a big deal. It plays into the insurance companies who drive much of the policies and practices. They are driving the things they do to keep their costs down. Insurance companies often try to be pretty methodical in what they do to keep costs down. It's not just random ideas but looking at cause/effect relationships.

Third, many drugs have effects outside of the time they are used. It's not just the impact of the drug while one is on it but how it affects them in the time they are not on it, as well. From a safety perspective that cannot be discounted.

From the standpoint of the companies and the people involved, if you want to do drugs than work elsewhere. Safety is a higher priority.

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

#519

Post by steve76 »

basch wrote: post #400
nimbius wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

But, the response here seems to be "this is too dangerous an idea to talk about, or consider" which seems really shitty. It's been 45 years since it was first established that heroin CAN be used safely when accompanied by a social ritual. Part of the problem IS the mindset and stigma around addiction, and that "insanely addictive drugs" have full power over people, and there is no ability to moderate their use, which…

Someone hooks your wife, or kid, or parents to junk and ruins their life. They're a protected class. All those police and soldiers protect them.

If addicts get to do that, why can't I do the same to them? Instead of heroin, I'm going to go after a genetic cancer cure, or see what applications of Bell's Theorem I can create on human cellular mitosis and quantum biology.

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

#520

Post by johnyzee »

varispeed wrote: post #242
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.

The dangers of the drug mostly come from its legal status and that it is being adulterated with various substances in the unregulated market. People also don't get a leaflet that they can consult on the strength or dosage so often they overdose. Medical grade heroin is not as dangerous as people supporting prohibition would like it to be. You can take clean heroin for decades and be perfectly fine. This would rather…

I would say the main danger is the crippling physical addiction (as well as psychological, but that is harder to quantify) it causes in a substantial amount of users.
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