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Heroin Using Hard Drugs Without Addiction?

A Question For madGardener

Here's my question for you mG (and I don't necessarily disagree with your premise): Why are you using these drugs when you use them? Now, it certainly possible, just as most of us use alcohol; for example, in social situations, in limited amounts, and at specific times and days. Is it possible to use drugs like heroin or methamphetamine in this manner? That is, recreationally, or as we put on our pharmacotherapy Rx's we write people say PRN or pro re nata roughly meaning: "take as needed", or ad libitum roughly meaning "as desired", But here is what I am getting at: what type of planning goes into the event? If something better came along -the girl you've had a crush on all your post-pubescent life-has decided she thinks you're awesome and wants to go on a date- how would you react to the missed drug event [doing the drug with her is not
an option let's just say]? Would you {A} Go out with her and forget about the drug indefinitely or completely? {B} Take it in good stride and just do the drug sometime in the non-specific future? {C} Would you go out with her, but do the drug on a very specific date in the future? {D} Go out with her and do the drug the next soonest night you are able to do so (Let's say the night right after the date)? {E} Would you do the drug that night, right after your date? {F} Would you try to make the date for another night after you did the drug?{G} Blow her off entirely because the drug is more important and fuck her if she can't handle you being high on your first date?
I think if your choice were {A} or {B}, there would be no issue about the drug's current place. {C} can also likely fall in this category; with {D} things may go either way, but are starting to clearly lean towards problems. And let's just for space say that choice {E} can also fall there. choices {F} and {G} can stand for {f}or{g}et about recreational drug use, others may be able to do it, but not you!

So mG, the question that comes into my mind is that, if you are asking this question to begin with, you probably already know the answer; and it is likely that while possible for some, it may not be possible for you. In general, people who don't over use alcohol, or heroin or methamphetamine, never have to say to themselves, " I wonder if I can keep this in check?" They just do it. I have been involved in clinical and research settings with drugs for 25 years, and I have never seen anyone addicted to any drug that was not self medicating for depression. So if you have any depression or dysthymia, or tend to feel melancholy sometimes, then I would not play this Russian Roulette and expect to walk away unharmed. And if your thoughts are, "I wish there were a non-addictive opiate that I could do everyday and not get addicted, I also would abstain. You also may want to note how you feel after you do the drug, on the next day. If you are really down and need to recover, fighting off the urge to do the same drug again or another drug, to escape the morning after blahs, then I would also not count yourself among the people that can do what you are asking. This effect and the morning after feelings tend to become more severe the more you take the drug; and if you are thinking about it early on, you may have a hard time if it starts taking 3-4 days to recover when you use. All of these are things you should think about before attempting this type of life style. Because, and here is the main point of this essay: Of all the people who have become addicted eventually to these drugs, there is not even one of them that failed to ask the question you are asking. It's the ones who never got addicted that never asked the question in the first place.

MobiusDick
 
That was a great post, reminded me of when I was first using heroin and I often did have to ask myself those questions as I was dating a girl I was super infatuated by back then. I tried to save my heroin for the next day usually cause she could Tell when I was high. Unfortunately one night we were about to have sex, when she reaches down and pulls a little wax Baggie stamped "no pain" off of her leg. Surprisingly we still had sex after I told her it was heroin, but that was just the beginning of pretty rocky relationship
 
@ madgardner

If I were you I'd stick to just using kratom and alcohol (which is what I do). That can be just as much fun, plus its cheaper and safer, plus WD's are peanuts compared to heroin or other opiates
 
Originally Posted by Swimmingdancer
Yeah, I really wish that forums like this existed back when I started using! I had to rely on getting books from the library, where I read that "heroin does not cause any long-term health problems" and that "withdrawing from opiates after becoming physically dependent causes flu-like symptoms" - both of which are complete bullshit! My only other source of info was heroin-user friends who wanted me to buy them dope and were totally in denial about their addiction.
What long-term health problems does it cause?

Yeah what are these long term health problems? Opiates are one of the least hard drugs on the body. Notice how many people are on pain management? Heroin is not much different. It's actually the fucking best painkiller in my opinion...

In NA the other day I remember a dude he's like I did heroin non stop for 30 years whilst teaching the 1st grade. He;s clean now.. in his 50s..looks pretty damn healthy. That's a functional addict if I ever heard of one lol.
 
I've never tried meth but I started the same way you did with heroin. I don't smoke.. I shoot. I chipped for pretty much a a whole year then moved to the city and found out that drug dealers are much cooler and bags are only 10 dollars compared to 25 an f'ing bag I was getting them for back where I used to live. Now that I have discovered that a measily 10 dollars will get me high I do it every day and feel I'm becoming an addict. It hasn't happened yet man and I'm going cold turkey starting tommorow man but just be aware of what's going on. Stop yourself when you're starting to do too much you'll come to a crossroads and becoming an addict using every day is retarded because you don't feel the drug anymore and you're a slave. not fun. Chipping on the other hand is fun.
 
Reading those first posts by OP all sounds so cliche. I don't want to tell my life story but I'll give the cliff notes. Started doing drugs at 14, been chipping for past 10 years on opiates - first 8 or 9 years I never got addicted because I didn't have (nor did I want) a steady source. They are my DOC and a steady source, as I expected, has been a truly awful thing to find.

I'm 25 now, in law school and addicted to opiates. It sucks and I see why people say this shit is so terrible. I don't regret trying all the other drugs out there but I wish like hell I never tried opiates.
 
What long-term health problems does it cause?

Yeah what are these long term health problems? Opiates are one of the least hard drugs on the body. Notice how many people are on pain management? Heroin is not much different. It's actually the fucking best painkiller in my opinion...

In NA the other day I remember a dude he's like I did heroin non stop for 30 years whilst teaching the 1st grade. He;s clean now.. in his 50s..looks pretty damn healthy. That's a functional addict if I ever heard of one lol.

Looking healthy has little to do with being healthy. And not everyone is the same, some people are more susceptible to the health issues and some people are just lucky (as with any disease or physical or mental health problem). So, presumably we all already know the many health risks from things that often surround heroin use, for example impure drugs, cotton fever, infections, viruses, not eating right and not caring about anything other than dope, using used syringes/straws/foil/pipes, things we do in order to get drugs or money for drugs, etc. But I was referring specifically to heroin itself, although there are certainly plenty of health risks indirectly associated with its use as well. And then there is of course the risk of overdose, but that is not what I meant either. So for those who are interested, here is a list of a few of the lovely conditions possible from using heroin:

- Death.
- The already-mentioned deadly or debilitating brain disease which one can get from smoking heroin.
- Serious digestive problems. Opiates slow down your digestive system, and with long-term use can permanently damage it. One might get/have, for example: chronic severe constipation, compacted/impacted feces, colitis, malabsorption (not be able to properly get get all the nutrients from one's food), megacolon, hemorrhoids, anal fissures, bowel obstruction, diverticulosis and so on.
- It depresses your immune system, making you more susceptible to other illnesses.
- A host of effects on the brain, many of which can be permanent, especially with long-term use. It actually changes the physiology of one's brain. The noticeable effects of this can include an extreme sensitivity to pain, depression, anhedonia (basically the inability to feel joy), chronic pain, along with the worsening of any pre-existing mental illness, etc etc. The brain/mental effects can also cause a variety of physical symptoms.
- Sexual disfunction. This can include not being able to get an erection, not being able to orgasm, or feeling nothing at all from sexual stimulation. Often this effect is only temporary, but for some people, especially women, it can be permanent.
- Changes in hormone levels and adverse effects on the endocrine system. It can affect a number of hormones/glands, all of which have a host of physical and mental symptoms, too many to list here.
- Miscarriage.
- Because opiates depress respiration, pulmonary complications, pneumonia and bronchitis etc may occur in longtime users due to respiratory depression and depressed immune system. Once a person has had one of these illnesses they may be predisposed for life, even after they stop using.
- All the various complications that can come from IV use, such as collapsed veins, poor circulation, etc.
- Low blood pressure.
- In long-time users who have become physically dependent they may have complications from withdrawal when they stop using, and/or post acute withdrawal syndrome which may last for an indefinite amount of time. Many people never feel "normal" again.
- Contrary to popular belief, withdrawal CAN be fatal, especially in users who have other health problems or quit suddenly with no tapering.
- Lessened or no response to pain-killers when you actually need them.
- Then if people have other health conditions there are other ways heroin and other opiates can complicate them.

There are probably other things I'm not thinking of at the moment as well. Suffice it to say it is a myth that heroin causes no adverse health effects. Some of them can be extremely debilitating, especially in people that have become physically dependent on opiates for a long period of time and then quit.
 
While it is true that pure heroin, and most opiates in general, are metabolized very easily when compared to other drugs, the idea that using once a month "cant be bad for you" is just a rediculous premise. The only people I've ever met that just used once a month, always ended up using much more frequently, and either became addicted, or ran into health consequences, or legal ones, which made them stop (or not). And The only people I know that I can say used heroin successfully are a few friends of mine that tried dope once or twice, a few years ago, and decided to never do it again, and stick with it.

You can definately be a functioning addict, but that doesn't make you any less of an addict. When I was in college last year I was shooting dope every day, and I was at school on time, got my work done, and got good grades. Then my tolerance started to build, and I started having to steal and sell my owne, and other peoples shit to get high. I eventually had a horrible asthma attack from the heroin and wound up in ICU for a week. I got out, stayed clean for less than twenty four hours, and within the next month I was in a detox.

Even if you were able to use dope recreationally, like say once a week, or once a month, eventually you're going to run into some problems. You might overdose, you might get arrested. No matter how you look at it, heroin is not something to mess around with. One of my friends had a friend who only used occasionally for years, he never got addicted. And then he OD'd and died.
 
That looks like a list from webmd or something lol

cotton fever, infections, viruses, not eating right and not caring about anything other than dope, using used syringes/straws/foil/pipes
These things are not specific to dope. You are not at risk to cotton fever infection viruses just because you do heroin. This is strictly injection practices (if you even inject).

Obviously there are remifications to taking the drug.. like there is any drug. I don't think there is a myth. I think it is common knowledge that you can catch aids from a shared pin, or that there are sideeffects & dependancy issues and that it can be fatal (od). We don't neeed a mythbusters to prove this. What people mean when they say it is harmless is you can come back from it, unlike a lot of other drug which do PERMANEN very noticeable and detrimental damage.

That large list is all side effects of current opiate use. I really don't think people underestimate heroins effect on the body.. most people know how horrible withdrawals are and how easy one can OD. I say most but I want to say all.. you have to be retarded if you are using heroin and don't know that.. or like 10 years old

But my point is, your body can repair itself pretty well from opiate abuse compared to if you are a meth abuser or something like that. I don;t think anything on that list was a result of irreversible damage. All of it is while you are taking the drug. If you use dope and are clean a decade you are not going to miscarriage , have sexual dysfunction, withdrawals, od, cotton fever, or ANYTHING . Your depression will likely be gone etc.. Now a meth addict in th atsame place, his brain is still fucked. His teeth are still probably gone.
 
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HEROIN NOT DANGEROUS?!?! Presposterous! Think about abcessed veins, Hep C, infection, TEH AIDS!!!, oh wait...

Heroin doesn't cause Hep C. improper use of needles does. just like anal fissures, etc etc

What people are saying, is that compared to drugs of well known and established toxicity (i.e. basically everything besides weed and psyches), opiates are fairly benign, at least physically. you can try to misrepresent the ramifications of addiction (homelessness, improper needle us, etc) as the actual effects of the drug itself, but that's like saying cannabis causes heart disease because of the munchies
 
Did anyone actually properly read my post?!? I included all sorts of things that were directly caused by using heroin, including permanent damage. The indirect (and often preventable) risks I mentioned at the beginning (which ms4104 quoted) were prefaced by "So, presumably we all already know the many health risks from things that often surround heroin use", and were mentioned to clarify that those things were not what I was referring to.

Some of the health conditions I listed were caused by how heroin effects the body, like slowing the digestive system, but they're still caused by heroin. The person wouldn't have them if they never used opiates. And I did mention that some of the conditions are caused by long-term use, it's not like all of them are going to be had by anyone who uses heroin once. That doesn't mean heroin does not have adverse, often permanent effects on the body and brain. It does.

It is untrue that all of those things just exist while you are actively using.

It makes me wonder if some people would just rather live in denial so that they can believe heroin is safe?
 
Did anyone actually properly read my post?!? I included all sorts of things that were directly caused by using heroin, including permanent damage. The indirect (and often preventable) risks I mentioned at the beginning (which ms4104 quoted) were prefaced by "So, presumably we all already know the many health risks from things that often surround heroin use", and were mentioned to clarify that those things were not what I was referring to.

Some of the health conditions I listed were caused by how heroin effects the body, like slowing the digestive system, but they're still caused by heroin. The person wouldn't have them if they never used opiates. And I did mention that some of the conditions are caused by long-term use, it's not like all of them are going to be had by anyone who uses heroin once. That doesn't mean heroin does not have adverse, often permanent effects on the body and brain. It does.

It is untrue that all of those things just exist while you are actively using.

It makes me wonder if some people would just rather live in denial so that they can believe heroin is safe?

I had this friend, who was fifty five and had been a heroin addict since the late sixties. He used to swear that not only was heroin good for you, but it was also the fountain of youth. He died a few years back due to drinking to much with untreated Hepatitus C. He also had to wear a larger shoe for his left foot, because it had become permanently swollen and deformed due to nerve damage
 
Yeah, I had a buddy who was into cocaine big time also say stuff like that. Coke was strictly therapeutical he'd always say. Some serious denial going on there I think
 
It makes me wonder if some people would just rather live in denial so that they can believe heroin is safe?
Yeah, but it can't be helped that people are going to compare and contrast it with the other hard drugs of that tier, and in that lineup of cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin, heroin is easily the most benign of the lot. Certainly isn't "safe" by any stretch of the imagination, but its negative health impacts are not even remotely as aggressive as, for example, methamphetamine or even MDMA.
 
I can totally identify, relate, to the fun weekend involving Both. ROFLMAO Wouldn't want to just do one or the other now would we. "Speedballs, If god created anything better...He kept it for himself"
 
Yeah, but it can't be helped that people are going to compare and contrast it with the other hard drugs of that tier, and in that lineup of cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin, heroin is easily the most benign of the lot. Certainly isn't "safe" by any stretch of the imagination, but its negative health impacts are not even remotely as aggressive as, for example, methamphetamine or even MDMA.

I think for the general population you're right about heroin compared to cocaine and meth. But heroin always causes me to have asthma attacks somewhere along the way. I can go a month or two on heroin, but at some point I end up having really dangerous asthma attacks, which have put me in intensive care multiple times. And it happens no matter how I use it, sniff or IV. I think it's a histamine think because other opioids like oxy, opana,methadone and buprenorphine never effect me like that.
 
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