Heroin success stories ... (title is an oxymoron -jc)

[frogman84]

Hey mods, I know this may be more of a philosophical thread but i am really hoping to hear from long time Heroin users, so can it please stay in Other Drugs? If not that's cool.

i have never been addicted to Heroin.

I have used a few times, never IV, and probably because of this small taste have been having terrible, and most likely delusional thoughts, that it might just be possible to live a life successfully with heroin. I know - famous last words right?

But i just wanted to see if anyone out there using has found a way to really understand how to use heroin productively and successfully. For years at a time.

Say it was possible to obtain heroin without having to buy on the street. Say one was able to maintain this source for 15 years or more without having to break laws or anything such as that. HYPOTHETICALLY speaking here.

What are peoples' general thoughts about this. Honestly speaking has your life been 'better' all round - have you been more compassionate, more caring, more productive, more able to deal with problems, and even to think better - when you have had a good few weeks run of steady heroin supply?

Or even if it was completely supplied to you, as much as you wanted, for as long as you wanted, would it still be something that might make your life worse in the long run?

I know many will say i am dicing with danger here, but what if people started getting more and more knowledgeable about heroin use and how to maintain an addiction in a very scientific way.

One thought i have had, is to keep use intramuscular rather than intravenous - i know that Keith Richards was supposedly a big fan of this. The instant rush might not be there, but would one still end up with the same sort of nod as if having dosed in a vein? And then the problem of collapsed veins and infections in long term users may be one less argument in favour of complete prohibition?

Or would the rush always be too hard to resist?

Heroin obviously has some really really good aspects to it, but it also has some terrible aspects to it also. But consider this:

Edited: Removed silly reference to tomatoes being illegal... this was a terrible analogy.

I know that any opiates i have had have made my life beautiful. I honestly think i have been more creative. I have had fantastic, fantastic dreams that have made me a stronger person because i have really felt there is something so great going on in the universe that i am only just being informed of.

I am also a computer programmer, and would really really love to take a heart monitor that one uses for running and setup a tank of oxygen so that when the heart rate drops below 40bpm or something, the oxygen tank would open and deliver the user safety through their mouthpiece.

What if users could be supplied with this type of mask when dosing? If deaths from overdose became a thing of the past, surely that could influence the studies of for/against legalisation.

I would really love people's input on these questions. I would love to hear whether the drug would still have detracted from your life had it been in free supply. Perhaps it makes you less attentive of other people's lives, problems or whatever.

Thanks

 

[brutus]

Dude never IM street heroin, you will end up with gangrene, an abscess, or possibly loose a limb.

I believe that it's possible to maintain a positive life using IV heroin but it would be very, very hard and there is no way that a person who was an addict could manage it for a significant period of time without fucking up his or her life.

 

[mrcool12291]

it might just be possible to live a life successfully with heroin. I know QUOTE]

those ARE the last words.

Heroin is such a terrible drug because it makes you feel so damn good, and you get addicted easily.

Switch "heroin" with "meth" "speed" or any other opiates/ uppers and it would still make perfect sence.

Theres a reason why heroin addicts do it more after their first time- CAUSE IT MAKES THEM FEEL BETTER

 

[caizar]

it might just be possible to live a life successfully with heroin. I know QUOTE]those ARE the last words. Heroin is such a terrible drug because it makes you feel so damn good, and you get addicted easily. Switch "heroin" with "meth" "speed" or any other opiates/ uppers and it would still make perfect sence. Theres a reason why heroin addicts do it more after their first time- CAUSE IT MAKES THEM FEEL BETTER

so so true!! nasty drug. stay well away. imo

 

[frogman84]

But what if you were able to have more. If you were able to say OK i am going to live the rest of my life on opiates? That addiction wasn't a problem that had to be fixed, but just like having to eat everyday or we die? Liek having to take insulin

I always have big thoughts about how the world is going to change in the future, how will humans evolve to be something more than they are now. We all love sex (well most of us anyway) because it serves a fundamental purpose in furthering the human race: and love is perhaps a means of different pairs of genes selecting beneficial partnerships that deliver better offspring.

If heroin use is fundamentally so addictive, meaning our brain thinks it is good, could it perhaps deliver humans that are higher functioning than otherwise. Could it be something that is beneficial in the long run?

What if some of the world's greatest scientists were given the drug and the many years of work they have done culminates with a supreme nod that delivers a serious scientific breakthrough?

The scientist that came up with the structure of the benzene molecule had it come to him in a dream, that MAY have been an opiate dream.

The substance used correctly... is it still evil?

 

[nukka]

Sounds like you're at a bit of a crossroads in that youre in the preliminary stages of developing an addiction. You've started convincing yourself that it is possible to use safely and not let things get out of hand.

Yea its true that if you can keep your use of opiates to about 1 day a week maybe sometimes twice but never back to back and probably never experience physical withdrawals. But once you get into that type of schedule its so easy to slip and binge for a week and once you cross over to getting physical w/ds it becomes exponentially harder to quit and pretty much impossible to go back to once a week type use schedules.

Be careful. Nobody can tell you what to do in this situation, but the more info you have the better off you'll be in the long run.

 

[Amberthefrog]

I think you know the answer deep down. It is certainly possible to love *a* life on
heroin but in the long term you will definitely want your old life back and regret your new one. I can say this without even knowing you, because it will be true in virtually all cases of heroin addiction, ever. You have the answer to your question already, and your searching for an alternative one. Well i'm afraid there isn't one.
Please be very careful and think over your next move dude. Good luck.

 

[sixpartseven]

We will keep this in OD.

Note to rest of the mods: Please dont move this.

I will come back and give a proper answer in a minute.

 

[johanneschimpo]

I was going to move this to DC so good thing you chimed in.

 

[sixpartseven]

Hey mods, I know this may be more of a philosophical thread but i am really hoping to hear from long time Heroin users, so can it please stay in Other Drugs? If not that's cool.

i have never been addicted to Heroin.

I have used a few times, never IV, and probably because of this small taste have been having terrible, and most likely delusional thoughts, that it might just be possible to live a life successfully with heroin. I know - famous last words right?

Definitely famous last words.

I wouldnt say your thoughts are delusional though. Its pretty much the same thoughts all of us (heroin addicts) had when we first started using. Look where we ended up. There is no way you can put "successfully" and "heroin" in the same sentence unless its "I have successfully stopped using heroin," or "heroin has successfully destroyed my life."

But i just wanted to see if anyone out there using has found a way to really understand how to use heroin productively and successfully. For years at a time.

Good luck. Youre going to be searching for a person like that for a long time. Probably wont ever find one.

Say it was possible to obtain heroin without having to buy on the street. Say one was able to maintain this source for 15 years or more without having to break laws or anything such as that. HYPOTHETICALLY speaking here.

What are peoples' general thoughts about this. Honestly speaking has your life been 'better' all round - have you been more compassionate, more caring, more productive, more able to deal with problems, and even to think better - when you have had a good few weeks run of steady heroin supply?

If it were possible to use heroin without ever having to battle tolerance or addiction, there is no question that heroin would/could improve the lives of some people.

For an addict, life is worse with every extra bag of heroin you have, even though it may not feel like at the time. Having a good steady supply, in the legal conditions of the world today, is dangerous for anyone.

Why do I say legal conditions? Keep reading...

Or even if it was completely supplied to you, as much as you wanted, for as long as you wanted, would it still be something that might make your life worse in the long run?

I cant find the source right now and I hate making claims like this without sources, but some of you may remember what Im talking about.

In the UK, a study was released where they found that pharmaceutical grade heroin, administered multiple (2 - 3) times a day at a set dosage (low and barely ever increasing) actually increased the lifespan of some of the test subjects, or was shown that it can increase lifespan.

Of course, this is taking into consideration that the heroin is NOT being abused, but to do what you are suggesting, you wouldnt be able to abuse the heroin. The minute you abuse it, is the minute your plan of successfully using for years on end falls apart.

But think about what Ive just said. Im sure I dont have to explain to you what this study is saying.

I know many will say i am dicing with danger here, but what if people started getting more and more knowledgeable about heroin use and how to maintain an addiction in a very scientific way.

Maintaining an addiction is not possible by using heroin alone. An addiction rises from abuse of the drug, and its really really really hard to be addicted to heroin and then one day decide "Ok, from now on, Im only going to use enough heroin to keep me from being sick. I will never get high with it again."

That just doesnt happen. The temptation to get high is too great. That is why there is Methadone and Suboxone.

One thought i have had, is to keep use intramuscular rather than intravenous - i know that Keith Richards was supposedly a big fan of this. The instant rush might not be there, but would one still end up with the same sort of nod as if having dosed in a vein? And then the problem of collapsed veins and infections in long term users may be one less argument in favour of complete prohibition?

Street heroin should NEVER be IMed. The risk of infection is much greater with IM than it is with IV.

Or would the rush always be too hard to resist?

That too.

Heroin obviously has some really really good aspects to it, but it also has some terrible aspects to it also. But consider this:

If tomatoes were illegal, i know of a lot of die hard italian food lovers that would still risk going to jail to indulge in a love of theirs - and so the simple act of eating lasagne could be told as a tale of woe that has 'ruined' someone's life completely, thereby demonising something that was otherwise completely benign in their lives.

Tomatoes would be cursed by wives who have lost their husbands/sons to this terrible, terrible, evil tomatoe. Much as heroin is now.

Im sorry, but that is an awful comparison. Tomatoes and heroin are completely different.

They may risk going to jail for tomatoes here and there, but they wouldnt put themselves on the line the way a devoted junkie does. Everyday performing at least 5 different illegal activities just to get money for heroin, not counting what they do after they get the heroin.

Eating lasagna doesnt get you high. It doesnt bind to receptors in your brain and make your body need it. Heroin does. It becomes a part of you that you cant ignore. Lasagna can be easily dismissed as a possible menu item for your lunch break during the week.

Heroin cannot. It is your breakfast, lunch, main course, and midnight snack. If you are addicted to it, you will do everything within your power to never miss a meal.

I know that any opiates i have had have made my life beautiful. I honestly think i have been more creative. I have had fantastic, fantastic dreams that have made me a stronger person because i have really felt there is something so great going on in the universe that i am only just being informed of.

I am also a computer programmer, and would really really love to take a heart monitor that one uses for running and setup a tank of oxygen so that when the heart rate drops below 40bpm or something, the oxygen tank would open and deliver the user safety through their mouthpiece.

Thats cool and all, but be careful.

Remember that no one plans on becoming an addict, and you dont even realize it happens until its way too fucking late, trust me on that.

What if users could be supplied with this type of mask when dosing? If deaths from overdose became a thing of the past, surely that could influence the studies of for/against legalisation.

Oxygen is not going to save someone from an OD. If there was some kind of emergency Naloxone pump in everyones body that could detect if an OD was occurring and automatically release naloxone, that would be sweet as fuck.

 

[Harumscxarum]

I've been using heroin for 3 years. Never have i been addicted, I haven't even had withdrawals yet, not once. Lately I've been using twice a week for the past...3 months. I've also never overdosed. The only bad thing that's happened to me because of heroin is once I got an abscess that wasn't that bad, but it was bad and I ended up going to the ER. I believe I wouldn't have gone to the ER if I wasn't up on speed for 2 days and paranoid. That ER trip cost me $1700


Heroin has for the most part changed my life for the better, It makes me appreciate being sober sometimes, I look at life differently. I've taken on a more live and let live outlook on life. To me heroin is a lot like love. I also find i never get lonely if I have heroin. All my friends have mates, i have heroin and I'm happy with it. Now If I were to have love and heroin I'd just be set for life. Heroin has somewhat effected my life negatively and thats only because of the social stigma surrounding it, somehow people found out about my use outside of my inner circle of friends. I'm still the same guy as i was before drugs, but some people try to act like I'm not and they talk shit.

I've never stolen anything for heroin, except a small piece of tinfoil from walmart once =P
I've never fucked anyone over, and I never blow off my friends for heroin UNLESS they want to drink, because It's not safe and I end up puking my brains out anyway.



I believe in a way I'm a success story

And yes I IV the heroin, i stopped smoking it after year 1.

Bite the hand that feeds
Tap the vein that bleeds
down on my bended knees
I break the back of love for you

 

[sixpartseven]

You are using two times a week though. Isnt the OP talking about more regular use than that? Im not trying to downgrade what you do, I mean, that definitely is cool that youve gone 3 years like that. It really is. Im just saying, it wouldnt be as easy if you were using more frequently.

I thought he was implying using almost everyday. If not, then my last post is pointless and Im an idiot.

 

[Harumscxarum]

You are using two times a week though. Isnt the OP talking about more regular use than that? Im not trying to downgrade what you do, I mean, that definitely is cool that youve gone 3 years like that. It really is. Im just saying, it wouldnt be as easy if you were using more frequently.

I thought he was implying using almost everyday. If not, then my last post is pointless and Im an idiot.

well I don't think It's possible to have a success story if you use all week, unless you have literally hundreds of thousands of dollars, which most of us don't. And spending that much money means something else suffers. I believe using heroin successfully means using it in moderation.

 

[sixpartseven]

Right, but what he was saying is if you had a steady supply and could use it everyday without having to worry about the supply. It was a hypothetical situation that he was proposing.

I dont know. It doesnt really matter. Id consider your story a success story, and thats all that matters.

 

[nukka]

well I don't think It's possible to have a success story if you use all week, unless you have literally hundreds of thousands of dollars, which most of us don't. And spending that much money means something else suffers. I believe using heroin successfully means using it in moderation.

Thats impressive that you kept it to twice a week. Kudos. The OP should understand htat people like Harum are pretty rare cases though, definitely the exception not the rule.

 

[Care]

Say it was possible to obtain heroin without having to buy on the street. Say one was able to maintain this source for 15 years or more without having to break laws or anything such as that. HYPOTHETICALLY speaking here.
Thanks

The Chineese were addicted to opium for hundreds of years. Some men would sit around all day every day smoking opium. After a while society went to complete shit and it took a totalitarian government to finally put an end to the scourge.

I've never done any opiates, so I dont talk from expierence. However i have seen addiction, and how destructive it can be especially with an unlimited supply of the drug.

I wouldnt wish it on anyone. I can tell by your post that you have given this subject alot of thought, but seriously man think long and hard about this justification you're making. You seem to have alot going for you and it would be a shame if heroin took it all away as it has to so many people.

 

[phr]

Addiction to anything, especially something that has such an impact on your mood and emotions as heroin does, is not a good thing. Regardless of whether your supply is unlimited. Once tolerance and dependence sets in, you'll notice a difference in your overall emotional response and other things such as sex drive, etc. Not that you can't live a "good" life like that... But that lifestyle would eventually get old for most people. I believe that may have been noted by the UK and Swiss studies where people were given an unlimited amount. Most stabilized and a lot stopped using after a while.

I'm just talking about using multiple times daily, here. Of course the ideal situation would be to use once or twice a week or something along those lines.

 

[youarewhatyouis]

Don't listen to those cynics. Here's my story. It's kind of corny, I know, but its from the heart.....








I was on the corner for quite some time and used many fine drugs through the years -- many of which I still use time to time -- but I had still not found that one special narcotic who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. My friends told me I was too picky, which I am. After being a stoner most of my life and raising many pot plants, then being a alcoholic for more than 12 years and becoming independent, you know what you like and what you don't like.

Ultimately, I had reached the point where I had totally given up on the love of illicit substances. But then, at the very end of 2004, I met the narcotic of my dreams. Heroin was beautiful, funny, could cook, good morals, loved children, good family, loved animals, and had ALL of my minimum requirements and so much more.

Our first date went very well and I was blown away. I just knew that my life was going to change immediately and boy, was I right! For the first five weeks, we literally saw each other every single day. There was chemistry on both sides and it was very strong. Even though we lived about 20 miles apart, we still made an effort to see each other every day.

After dating for just six weeks -- yes, that is six weeks -- I knew that I loved Heroin and she loved me, so I proposed to her!! We were both so much in love! We got engaged after a romantic dinner on Valentine's Day 2005 and had a beautiful wedding in October 2005.

 

[johanneschimpo]

^ How cute. I love happy endings.

 

[youarewhatyouis]

awwwww shucks, what can I say?