Heroin - the evil scourge of the illegal drug world

slimvictor

slimvictor

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"Darkness cannot be dissipated with more darkness.
If there is a more evil substance than heroin, I cannot think of what it is. Perhaps there are even more addictive substances (e.g. crack, methamphetamines and alcohol to name some possibilities), but I doubt those substances have the tragic consequences that heroin does.

Heroin in a substance that, once taken, causes many lives to start “circling the drain.” Many who try heroin think they can “manage” the drug. They find rather quickly that heroin will rule their life.

I am not a drug counselor and my experience comes from speaking to addicts I met who found themselves in the back of a police cars or in police interview rooms. Some of those I would later speak to many times on the street.

cont at
http://www.annarbor.com/news/crime/heroin/
 
It's a good thing he wrote the article. You know, for all those people out there who think street heroin is healthy and becoming an addict is conducive of a long and healthy life :/
 
To understand a heroin addict and why they do the things they do, ask yourself a simple question: What would you do to keep yourself from getting violently physically ill?
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It's worth saying that heroin is almost supernaturally bad for a person's life mostly because of this. It's not the heroin that kills, it's the lifestyle you lead to prevent withdrawals at all costs. That's the high price of heroin in both time and money.
 
Try and defend heroin all you want guys, but at the end of the day theres not really any other classes of drug that can get such a strong hold on you.

Stimulants can be pretty addictive, but when the withdrawal is basically be deppressed and sleep. It's nothign compared to 3-7 days of hell that heroin brings!
 
At least heroin doesn't destroy your liver, kidneys, brain, stomach or lungs (unless you smoke it). It doesn't deteriorate your body in the long term. Captainballs said it best, it's the unhealthy lifestyle of the addict that does that.

Heavy alcoholics, benzo addicts and crack/meth fiends are at least as bad as heroin addicts as far as doing anything to keep from WDing, and in my experience crack fiends are way, way worse in their behavior then heroin addicts.

Anyway, no addiction is healthy. And heroin can fuck your life up as much as any hard drug. But heroin itself doesn't cause nearly as much long term damage as alcoholism or stimulant addiction, assuming you aren't completely ignoring all HR principles, which many addicts do.

For those who think they can “manage” heroin, they try it, like it and decide, so that they won’t become an “addict,” that they will only use it once every two weeks for instance. About a week goes by and confident that they are not addicted they try it again.

The next day feeling no ill effects or physical cravings the heroin “managers” again delude themselves that they are not addicted --physically that is. So they use heroin again. Soon it becomes daily use and physical addiction.
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The author of this article thinks all heroin users are addicts. I've used opiates for many years and never come close to addiction. In some periods I was using once or twice a week, more recently I've only done opiates once in the last 6 months. Opiates have never harmed me, but I can't say that of the days when I experimented with meth and crack. Benzos and alcohol (usually the combo) have fucked up my life much more then heroin. Everyone's different and the generalizations in this article are huge. But statistically, most people who try heroin do not get addicted.

Heroin addiction doesn't cause uniquely bad behaviors, all addictions cause bad behavior. I've never seen a heroin addict as deranged and dangerous and fiendish as a hardcore crackhead though, but maybe that's just my experience. I think meth and crack are far more fucked up then heroin because of how neurotoxic and generally terrible for your body they are.

One last thing- the author blames heroin for the fact that a lot of addicts have been arrested, when in reality it is the fault of the police for arresting them more then it's the fault of the addicts for being arrested. The heroin didn't cause the arrest, the fact that heroin is illegal did.
 
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No specific drug can be dubbed the evilest, it all depends on the individuals personal preference; I personally see heroin, crack, and meth as the most destructive.
 
psychomimetic said:
At least heroin doesn't destroy your liver, kidneys, brain, stomach or lungs (unless you smoke it). It doesn't deteriorate your body in the long term. Captainballs said it best, it's the unhealthy lifestyle of the addict that does that.

Heavy alcoholics, benzo addicts and crack/meth fiends are at least as bad as heroin addicts as far as doing anything to keep from WDing, and in my experience crack fiends are way, way worse in their behavior then heroin addicts.

Anyway, no addiction is healthy. And heroin can fuck your life up as much as any hard drug. But heroin itself doesn't cause nearly as much long term damage as alcoholism or stimulant addiction, assuming you aren't completely ignoring all HR principles, which many addicts do.



The author of this article thinks all heroin users are addicts. I've used opiates for many years and never come close to addiction. In some periods I was using once or twice a week, more recently I've only done opiates once in the last 6 months. Opiates have never harmed me, but I can't say that of the days when I experimented with meth and crack. Benzos and alcohol (usually the combo) have fucked up my life much more then heroin. Everyone's different and the generalizations in this article are huge. But statistically, most people who try heroin do not get addicted.

Heroin addiction doesn't cause uniquely bad behaviors, all addictions cause bad behavior. I've never seen a heroin addict as deranged and dangerous and fiendish as a hardcore crackhead though, but maybe that's just my experience. I think meth and crack are far more fucked up then heroin because of how neurotoxic and generally terrible for your body they are.

One last thing- the author blames heroin for the fact that a lot of addicts have been arrested, when in reality it is the fault of the police for arresting them more then it's the fault of the addicts for being arrested. The heroin didn't cause the arrest, the fact that heroin is illegal did.
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Heroin is toxic, especially the 'heroin' on the streets nowadays can be a mixture of black tar opium fentanyl kratom and who knows what else for that matter.

If it was legal and affordable, it probably wouldn't be such a problem though. People could use stuff that's not crap off the streets and not worry about running out if only a few dollars gets another fix.

I'm not generalizing heroin as bad, like LSDMDMA&AMP said you see faces of meth, but you don't see faces of heroin. Heroin's biggest drawback is the withdrawls.

Crack you can smoke it, and fiend, but ultimately you can get on with life. Heroin DOES NOT LET you get on.
 
There might have been a time when i was younger, i mean in my early teens, when i would have read that shit and agreed with it solely based on what i had heard at that point about heroin, which was pretty much what the article summed up. It was always the most "hardcore" drug in the eyes of just about everyone. It was onlyafter getting addicted to it, that i know its a huge load of shit. The life style is hardcore, not the drug. I stole for it, did all sorts of shit i would have never thought i would have done to support a dope habit that was destroying me physically, not from the actual drug but from running the streets, not eating, not sleeping, expose to the elements and so on. Had i been able to have a steady supply of heroin i would have been content just laying around doing it as sad as that is. The only reason you do anything when you have a serious habit is to probably get dope or do something to ensure future dope possession. There are so many facets to heroin addiction, one thing i always found interesting was most users when given a steady supply will adjust to a daily dosing schedule of around the same amount, like the way a mmt patient stabilizes on a certain dose. It makes a strong point for rx heroin for ppl that are hopelessly addicted. How it is any more of a scourge than crack or meth i dont know, i was never addicted to either of those drugs. I would think being a meth addict would be just about as bad as it could get, but maybe a meth addict would say the same thing about heroin. Heroin preserves your youth while meth steals it.
 
severely etarded said:
Heroin is toxic, especially the 'heroin' on the streets nowadays can be a mixture of black tar opium fentanyl kratom and who knows what else for that matter.

If it was legal and affordable, it probably wouldn't be such a problem though. People could use stuff that's not crap off the streets and not worry about running out if only a few dollars gets another fix.

I'm not generalizing heroin as bad, like LSDMDMA&AMP said you see faces of meth, but you don't see faces of heroin. Heroin's biggest drawback is the withdrawls.

Crack you can smoke it, and fiend, but ultimately you can get on with life. Heroin DOES NOT LET you get on.
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Heroin is not toxic. Street heroin is toxic because of the things in it that are not heroin, not because of the heroin, like you said. Diacetylmorphine is very non-toxic. Shoving needles in your arms, snorting random powders, smoking tar and doing all the shit in street heroin that isn't diacetylmorphine is what causes damage to heroin users (not to mention the terribly unhealthy lifestyle of most addicts). And even with all those things, I haven't ever seen a long-term dope fiend that looked as physically bad or was as mentally damaged as a long-term crack or meth head. I've met former crackheads that hadn't used in years and still couldn't speak properly because of brain damage. Never seen or heard of that with a dope fiend that didn't cause damage by ODing.

Heroin is indeed easier then most drugs to have a fatal overdose on, that's for sure, and that's why so many of the people in the shrine died from it.

I think your last sentence, that heroin doesn't let you get on with your life, depends highly on the individual. When I use meth I binge for several days, always. I've never been able to use meth for just one night, that drug grabs a hold of me and doesn't let go. I've never had any problem only using dope for one night. But that's just me, everyone's different.

Like I said before, all drug addiction is very bad for you, regardless of the drug. But heroin isn't some magically evil substance worse then any other. Maybe for some people that's the case. But statistically, about 24% of people who try heroin end up addicted, whereas that number somewhere in the 70 or 80% range for crack and meth and 99% for tobacco, and about 16% for alcohol (this is all IIRC, but the numbers are about right).

And heroin itself (diacetylmorphine, not street dope) is indisputably less toxic then meth, crack and alcohol. I'm not saying heroin addiction or street heroin are safe. But I am saying that this article is a huge exaggeration and generalization. It says very plainly that everyone who tries dope becomes an addict. And most people who try it don't. These kinds of generalizations, like "all heroin users are addicts," are simply not true and they piss me off, partly because I'm a heroin user who's never had a bad experience with it, never become an addict and never had any harm done to me from the dope. I've used maybe a total of 20-50 times in the past, so I'm not inexperienced or someone who is just starting to experiment.

Why would heroin be worse for you then morphine if drug laws didn't exist?

The worst drug is different for everyone, but heroin isn't nearly as addictive or harmful as the article makes out for the majority of its users.
 
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psychomimetic said:
I think your last sentence, that heroin doesn't let you get on with your life, depends highly on the individual. When I use meth I binge for several days, always. I've never been able to use meth for just one night, that drug grabs a hold of me and doesn't let go. I've never had any problem only using dope for one night. But that's just me, everyone's different.
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I wouldn't call Heroin a magically evil substance, but in my experience, it has a tendency to change your priorities like no other substance out there. And I am not even talking about the damage from the life style. Almost all the users that I have met devolved into addicts whose whole life would revolve around getting high (this includes me). I am not really planning on trying H again.
 
I can understand that, but at the same time I feel like any serious drug addict's life revolves primarily around getting high. I've never met a crack head that waited until after work to smoke rock, or one that wouldn't steal to support their habit. I'm sure different people have higher tendencies to have problems with different drugs. But calling heroin "the evil scourge of the illegal drug world" is just ridiculous. No addiction is healthy, but I've never met an addict that had a priority that came before getting high, from alcohol to oxy to crack to heroin, stopping withdrawals are at the top of pretty much any addict's mind. The only real difference I can see is that heroin causes worse withdrawals then most drugs. But not worse then benzos or alcohol. I'm not saying heroin addiction is harmless, I'm saying that heroin itself is much, much safer then this article makes it out to be.

On top of that, heroin addicts calm down when they get high. Meth heads just get crazier when they score. And heroin is without dispute less bad for you. And heroin is also less addictive generally then meth or crack, although that's not the case for everyone. The article here is just sensationalist bullshit, it's completely absurd, it makes heroin out to be far worse then it is and makes other drugs sound comparably harmless.

This might just be my personal experience, but the crackheads I've come across have acted much worse then heroin addicts. I've never seen heroin addicts prostitute themselves, rob people at knife point or rob stores for dope, although I'm sure it happens. In my life, crack heads have always seemed to behave much worse. And in my personal experiences, I've found heroin to be less addictive and not bad for my mind then meth or crack, both of which remove the possibility of chipping for me. Everyone's different though, for some heroin is the drug they can't do without degenerating, for some that drug is meth, etc. This article is far too general to be realistic.

This thread is mostly people saying "heroin's not that bad" and then others responding with their bad experiences with heroin, and then me responding about my positive experiences with dope and negative ones with other drugs. Which just goes to show how varied people's responses to drugs are. No one drug is the worst. Except inhalants of course.

Maybe I should write an article called Huffing butane- the evil scourge of the illegal drug world. People do much worse things then dope for fun. I'd imagine everyone here can at least agree that dope is healthier then huffing butane or gas or starting fluid. ;)
 
All i can say is benzos and alcohol have debilitating effect on users. Stimulants too but opiates are the most benign drug family (physical effect).
 
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Some people are more susceptible to addiction than others. Whether this is by nature or nurture is debatable by some. With this in mind, there are people out there who use opiates/heroin/any drug recreationally and can use it safely, responsibly, and have it not negatively affect their life. And then there are drug addicts. In my mind there are three tiers of drug use: users, abusers, and addicts. In the extremely profitable world of treatment programs and rehabs, D.A.R.E and Drug War propaganda, anybody who uses any kind of drug has a problem (which just isn't true). I can't tell you how many 'hardcore weed addicts' and weekend warrior types I met in treatment facilities who were convinced by their counselors, parents, straight friends/family, authorities that they were 'addicts'. Drugs are a moral fucking panic nowadays.

At the same time, being an addict is fucking shitty. Whether it be heroin, or crack, meth, alcohol, etc. No matter what you are addicted to, it destroys your life. It doesn't matter what you are addicted to, it'll fuck you up and you may not ever recover. I've seen heroin take myself and other people to the streets, prostitution, stealing, crime, job, friend, family loss, EVERYTHING loss. Not because it was heroin, but because they/I were/am ADDICTS. That's the common denominator here, NOT the drug itself.

Addicts will have their preferences. I've done every drug you can think of and nothing affected me and turned me on the way heroin did. Smoked crack, speed, but heroin got me and turned me into a junkie when I was very young. On the flip side, I know meth heads, crack fiends, etc. that have done dope and they still prefer their rock and their ice. And then you've got the real idiots who go OMG -insert drug here- is fuckin' DISGUSTING, you're a piece of shit if you do it! while doing dope, meth, crack, etc.

Personally, my heroin addiction has changed my life, my brain, my soul in an irreversible way. My addiction damaged and destroyed my life. I don't think i'll ever be the same, and recovery has been bleak for me (over 7 different stints in rehab and detox, AA/NA, relocating thousands of miles away, everything. Ain't quite worked. But nothing does until you are TRULY READY.) I've found this to be the same for almost every heroin junkie I know. For most addicts, it's also the same.

Heroin is VERY physically/psychologically addicting and fucks up your reward system in your brain bad. Being dope sick is living hell, and i'm sure there's people not prone to addiction that get pulled in this way. That's the way it's different than other addicting drugs, is it's potential for hard physical/psychological dependency.

Title/article should be ADDICTION - the evil scourge of the illegal/LEGAL drug world

Also, meth, alcohol, and crack are a lot more physically destructive (it's just a fact) and toxic to your body. Dope might harden up your veins, and there's tons of risk associate with irresponsibly using needles, not swabbing injection sites, unsafe technique, usual risks of smoking/snorting etc. but heroin by itself just don't destroy your body the same way. And alchies/tweakers/crack heads tend to be a bit more fucked up and loonier in the head after long term use. I'll never see somebody all fucked up on heroin rolling around in the street outside of a public grocery store, naked, drooling, and pissing herself (my severely alcoholic friend, lol), or having their boyfriend attack them and violently molest them vaginally and anally because he is convinced there are bags of tweak she stole from him and is hidin' up there lol.

Sorry for the novel!
 
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I really don't think there's much point in this whole 'X is more dangerous/addictive than Y' debate. I think we can all agree that all of these drugs have the potential to cause serious, debilitating addiction and are each in their own way dangerous to the user, beyond that a lot of it is culture and context, and comes down to the personality and preferences of the user.
 
Crankinit said:
I really don't think there's much point in this whole 'X is more dangerous/addictive than Y' debate. I think we can all agree that all of these drugs have the potential to cause serious, debilitating addiction and are each in their own way dangerous to the user, beyond that a lot of it is culture and context, and comes down to the personality and preferences of the user.
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I would still argue that certain substances tend to be less destructive in general.
 
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