Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

m.nautil.us

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

571–580 of 692 posts

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

#571

Post by unishark »

moreranchplease wrote: post #549
JoelMcCracken wrote: post #542

I read this a few hours ago and didn't decide to comment then. But I just have to. I just lost my brother-in-law to heroin overdose. He overdosed because he went into rehab, came out, and then used far more than his body could tolerate. This is unfortunately common. Not because he mixed it with alcohol or antihistamines or whatever. Overall, his entire life has been extremely tragic. He was a good guy at heart. He wa…

The fact that they're illegal and you don't know the dose is why this happens though.

One explanation I've read is that heavy addicts build up such a tolerance that they need dangerously high doses in the first place. If they quit for awhile like in this story, their tolerance drops and what they could previously handle now kills them.

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

#572

Post by throwawayboise »

Grustaf wrote: post #451
lostgame wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dunno about you, but I have never bought drugs from a junkie, but, of course, through dealers, who - in my experience, more often than not - do not actually use many of the substances they sell.

I haven’t actually bought or even used any illegal drugs at all, my point was just that I don’t think a lot of people will be inspired by an article like this to try heroin, unless they were already considering it. Most people that fall into heavy addiction are probably driven there more by chaotic circumstances than intellectual considerations.

When I was in high school I toyed with the idea of trying heroin due to how it was described in health class. Never did, though.

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

#573

Post by svnpenn »

slfnflctd wrote: post #270
jboog wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus, I thought I drank too much but it's still hard to believe 10% of Americans drink the equivalent of 10 drinks EVERY DAY. On my worst weeks when I think "i need to cut back" I might average ~3 drinks a day, maybe 5 on a holiday bender.

From direct personal experience totaling well over a decade, 10 drinks is not hard to get to, especially for a larger person. 2-3 to get things going, and 1 an hour after that, for up to 7 hours. On weekends, I split it up; 3-4 in the morning & before lunch, then eat/sleep, then 6-7 through the afternoon & evening. Beer usually seems to be easier on the system than anything else, but that may vary by physiology. Once…

I think if you're drinking before noon you have a problem.

Some mimosa with brunch is one thing, but if you're into pretty much anything else (beer, wine, liquor), you should probably stop immediately and take a good hard look in the mirror.

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

#574

Post by throwawayboise »

GordonS wrote: post #278
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…

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

Drinking alcohol at work is acceptable in many office jobs. Getting drunk is mostly not.

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

#575

Post by wzkhstfx »

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?

> Responsible drug users sounds like an oxymoron. Is there any data that shows those people even exist?

I mean, there's the billions of people who manage to consume alcohol without it interfering with the rest of their lives and the lives of others. Don't pretend that one substance that alters perception and behavior somehow isn't a "drug" in the same way that many others are just because of its legal status.

But if you mean drugs that are illegal, yes, there are also plenty of responsible users of those too. My wife and I have taken MDMA together a few times and it has been transformative for our relationship. As well as sharing our love for each other it also helped us talk about difficult subjects, something which I found hard for a long time, and as a result I am now better at talking about hard things when sober too. I think most people would say that going on a date night is a "responsible" act of relationship maintenance and I don't see what we did as any different, except much, much more enjoyable than a cocktail and meal. Every time we were careful with dosing, made sure we had no other responsibilities, and so on. It's as responsible as quality time with each other at a cafe.

I recognise that the production of illegal drugs is damaging and awful, but that's the fault of our legal framework. In the same way that producing soft drinks or beer isn't necessarily damaging nor should be producing drugs that are currently illegal.

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

#576

Post by cambaceres »

gonehome wrote: post #545
JoelMcCracken wrote: post #542

I read this a few hours ago and didn't decide to comment then. But I just have to. I just lost my brother-in-law to heroin overdose. He overdosed because he went into rehab, came out, and then used far more than his body could tolerate. This is unfortunately common. Not because he mixed it with alcohol or antihistamines or whatever. Overall, his entire life has been extremely tragic. He was a good guy at heart. He wa…

Yeah, the piece reads like a rationalization by a drug user still in the early stages of a problem. We'll see how things turn out in the end (maybe I'm wrong), but I'm pretty skeptical of a positive outcome.

Don't take this wrong, but I'm pretty skeptical of a positive outcome of your life too. We all die in the end.

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

#577

Post by valuearb »

hackermailman wrote: post #443
valuearb wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heroin is still illegal in Vancouver. Only a handful of addicts get free heroin. And because it’s illegal most addicts have to pay high prices for heroin of unknown potency, and frequent laced with Fentanyl. That directly leads to overdoses and hundreds of deaths, along with street crime to fund expensive habits.

It's been decrim unofficially for personal use for 5 years now, now officially decriminalized https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2020/11/28/vancouver-votes-to-decri... Every bus stop since March last year in the drug slums also has instructions where to get prescribed opiates. Area only got worse

Decriminalization isn’t legalization. Not only is it still a federal crime to buy and use, but it’s also illegal to sell. And illegal heroin is still cut with a variety of substances leading to more overdoses and deaths.

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

#578

Post by valuearb »

lazide wrote: post #378
valuearb wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t have to murder anyone to fund a legal drug habit. Legal drug habits are easier to treat. Some might not even have a drug habit if not for illegal drugs laced with addictive substances they didn’t even know were there.

Oxycodone is legal [albeit controlled]. There are plenty of pill doctors that will prescribe oxycodone to anyone that doesn't look like too big of a mess. A cousin of mine stole oxycodone from my grandmother when she couldn't afford the ever increasing costs of her spiraling out of control oxycodone habit. People have murdered and gone bankrupt acquiring oxycodone, and continue to do so. [ https://www.pharmacytimes.c…

People rob and murder people for all sorts of reasons. But drug addicts have to commit fewer crimes if their drugs are cheap and easy to get.

And legal drugs have known potencies, and aren’t mixed with other more addictive drugs.

Don’t compare decriminalization to legalization, they are entire different things. Decriminalization still suffers from higher addiction and death rates because selling the drugs is still illegal.

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

#579

Post by valuearb »

Natsu wrote: post #409
valuearb wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would illegal stop them from trying heroin if someone thought it better than sex? What illegal does is make it far more likely to die from using heroin.

> Why would illegal stop them from trying heroin if someone thought it better than sex? Lack of access (or not knowing how to access it) comes to mind, among many other reasons.

Illegal drugs increase addiction rates because drugs are often cut with different drugs. How many heroin addicts were created by lacing lesser drugs with more addictive ones?

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

#580

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

wittyreference wrote: post #460
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was 17 I had a bad cough and my mom gave me what turned out to be too much codeine cough syrup. An hour later I realized my cough was gone but I had spent all that time staring at my Windows ME desktop, in some sort of euphoric daze, repeatedly selecting and deselecting all the icons. For an hour! It was really, really creepy and deeply unsettling. And this was codeine, a "mild" opiate! Have aggressively staye…

Ever taken codeine again? You may have a genetic variant of CYP2d6 that makes codeine, in particular, hit you hard. It's not an effect common across opioids.

Nope never, or any other opioid either, fortunately. But thanks that’s really interesting. Neither of my parents seem particularly affected. But who knows.
Post reply on HN