To oversimplify: 70% of drug users don’t have a “problem”. While the point is well taken that that number is higher than the media would imply, which might impede rational discussion, those still don’t seem like great odds to me, given how severe those “problems” can be.
I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem
661–670 of 692 posts
Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem
#662Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
High school is way too early for that, IMHO.
Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem
#663Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 ;)
Dude, I'm just glad to hear you're alive! Hope you're doing well.
thanks, random internet friend, you too! things like this are what makes life good every now and again...
Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem
#664Small anecdote regarding how addiction works:
I took ecstasy on this new year's eve together with my brothers and it felt amazing. It felt like my mind was free and I was way faster at phrasing my mind. Few hours later I went to the bank, got a few hundred euros and tried asking the dealer for a hundred tablets.
That's how crazy ecstasy was for me. I am 100% sure if I would try heroine once I would fall for it, especially because as a tech guy I have the means to sustain it to a deadly degree.
Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem
#665Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I should have elaborated in my op, but this is exactly what happened to my brother in law.
Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem
#666Earlier quoted context omitted.
The circumstances of the overdose are important though. Many of them occur because the victim consumed it with another respiratory depressant like alcohol.
Exactly. The level at which one might "OD" fluctuates. So even if you know the dose, you can be wrong about your ability to handle it.
You can even OD on a known amount of the drug just by being in a different setting. Throughout my time in rehab facilities, I've met many heroin addicts with horrible stories of people close to them dying. It's a hard drug to use safely even if you know exactly how much and what you are getting, mostly because respiratory depressants cause problems when used in conjunction with so many other drugs, but also because in a heavy user, active dose over lethal dose is damn near 1:1.
Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem
#667Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm currently a Coca Cola addict. It's not unbearable, but I really have strong cravings regularly. It's not thirst -- I don't want water, I specifically want Coca Cola. This beverage has no redeeming qualities, and I want to kick off this habit.
The beverage is fine, if you have it every few weeks, during heavy exercise or when trying to stay a awake on a long car journey. It's not a drink you should be drinking all day, every day unless you'd be happy taking caffeine tablets and having several spoons of sugar on top of what you're eating. I love coke and will have about 1 can a month on average. In America (and fast food places in general) it seems to be th…
Agreed, in moderation it's probably mostly harmless... but still, it's a disgusting sludge when you look at it objectively: a syrupy dark thing with excess sweetener/sugar.
However, it triggers some addiction mechanism in my brain, and I must drink it every day. No moderation for me -- it really is an addiction. I don't go to McDonald's: I drink it at home. Diet Coke, so no excess sugar, but I'm pretty sure Diet Coke is unhealthy as well, and I'm not sure those sweeteners are good for you anyway.
Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem
#668"If you’re not wearing a mask, when we have this highly communicable disease, then you’re potentially impacting the rights of other people." The same argument could be made for heroin. The point is that 'not wearing a mask' does not endanger someone's life in any way unless someone is infected with covid. yet the author suggests that not wearing a mask is "potentially impacting the rights of other people" Then surely…
> you're not endangering anyones life by using heroin unless you're causing drug-related crimes Are you saying heroin causes people to commit crime? > This is quite a contradiction by equavalency. I thought he meant it similarly. We created the war on drugs from this logic, yet do not have a war on people not wearing masks. You're right in that mask wearing is a tricky situation, and I think so is hard drug usage. He…
>I thought he meant it similarly.
There was no ambiguity, from the article "Your birthright to use drugs is part of the pursuit of happiness, you write." The author consideres it a birthright to use drugs irrespective of the consequences drugs have for a percentage of the population. To wear or not to wear masks however is "... potentially impacting the rights of other people." which is why I think its a slight contradiction.
>Are you saying heroin causes people to commit crime?
I dont understand what you're asking, drug-related crimes are drug related, using heroin in the states is a crime so the continued habit also constitutes committing crimes? My point was that anyone could be a heroin user who commits crimes or a heroin user and write an article, there's no way of predicting the future, mainstream society has deemed the 'risk' too great and instituted a method of preventing heroin use by making the use of the substance illegal. The article goes against that narrative with a libertarian point of view. I think I prefer the libertarian on this one.
Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem
#669Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a physician: No, the 'vast majority' do not. I've supervised medical grade opioid administration to more than a few people, both acutely and chronically, and *folks without a pre-existing substance use problem* do not often develop one, especially if it's over the short term. The idea that "I give you an opioid and then BAM I want more!" is highly divergent from my clinical experience.
As a physician, you should know that using opioids to experience euphoria and pleasure is drastically different from using appropriate doses to combat the effects of pain. It's the euphoria and pleasure that triggers operant conditioning and the accumulation of ΔFosB that occurs in the vast majority of addictions[1]. Only after receptor downregulation does withdrawal avoidance become a factor, but once that occurs, i…
dFosB also accumulates in chronic pain and in some types of acute and inflammatory pain.
The grand-parent comment to which I am replying describes near-instant addiction in the context of an opioid prescribed for pain control.
Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem
#670I 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.
Rationalization is always one of the calling-card signatures to drug use. Addiction takes over part of one's mind and defends its existence from other rational parts of the brain.
While I am now pro-decriminalization, I don't believe marijuana is as harmless as its proponents contend, mostly because I detect the same signature addiction rationalizations and defense mechanisms in the discussions and messages.
But I guess I am pro-decriminalization primarily due to me wanting to alleviate the economic basis of smuggling destroying the cultural vitality of Mexico, Central America, and Latin America, converting them into zombie narco states.
I still believe decriminalization will vastly increase use/abuse of drugs (the most heavily used ones are the legal ones) and treat our own people and problems.
But truly addressing that would be addressing the depression, loneliness, and lack of fulfillment the modern capitalist media consumer state creates.