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The image of the Heroin Addict v. The Opioid Pharmaceutical "Pill Popping" Addict

What company would want a bad image on what they are selling by the millions? Pharmaceutical businesses are likely trying to protect their pills from having a stigma attached to it, especially if it's going to carry heroin's rep. In reality both drugs can cause an addiction however in pharmaceuticals the dose is way more controlled.
 
There are fully functional users of all kinds of drugs, prob people you'd never dream used, and in all walks of life.

The problem with anything like heroin tho is tolerance. If you had enough control to limit use and therefore tolerance then there's no reason you couldn't enjoy your own little pleasure.

Yep - the media image is of the late-stage chronic heroin addict, thieving or prostituting for their habit. It's similar for crack and methamphetamine.

Personally I'd never use a needle, or even heroin, but I wouldn't demonise someone who did. It used to be GHB for me. There's plenty of opiate pain-killer addicts out there, who don't even know they're addicted, same for the benzo crowd. They stop using they get withdrawals but they don't realise it's withdrawals, they think their "medicine" is fixing them.

That's their friendly docs fault. But to get back to ur point of course there's users of all walks of life at all stages of addiction, some never get beyond weekend or evening use, some can't exist with a hit.

But of course it's ok to drink. And your average alkie is quite happy to be in the pub every night or go through a six pack or two after work every day and point their fingers at everyone else the TV news shows them...
 
RedRum OG said:
^ no sorry. im stoned.

i meant like becuase its normal to shoot heroin, it is easier to start doing that, so youre more likely to come full blown addicted and to raise your tolerance out of control. i think im guessing some day ill start straight dope with snorting and then progress to IV to save money and be more efficient, like all beginning addicts rationalize the starting of IV use

with the pills i do (mostly oxy, some hydro and morph) it works well to eat them, and i snort sometimes. but i wouldnt ever start shooting because thats crazy shit and dangerous and i wouldnt know anyone to teach me how etc. and this is the mindset of all the pill poppers i know... they pop em dont bang em.
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well, thats the media image, but most dope users ive met don't bang. i'd say maybe 1/4 of the users ive met shoot it. most people smoke or snort it, because spiking your vein is a very big step, and most people (myself not included) are able to refrain from doing so, cuz once ya do, there's no goin back.
 
In my mind there's zero difference between Purdue Pharma. and Mexican drug cartel #5. The consequences of illegality are obvious: while both can pay off lawmakers and such only one of them creates decapitated bodies everywhere. Oxy instead of heroin and dex amp instead of meth amp. Illegal = bodies.
 
where are you guys getting the stats that only 10-20% of opiate users are addicted?? IME id guess that number to be around 90%
 
To seven one eight... I'm also a 718er only Queens not Brooklyn. And Tommyboy, my cell is a 516 because I live on the Nassau County border so the 3 of us are neighbors:)

Any, I can talk about this from a different generational point of view. I was an IV heroin addict in the '60's and '70's (then h started going downhill in quality and I got on a methadone program where I stayed for over 30 years).... In my day, there were not very many "functional" IV heroin users. I certainly wasn't. The tolerance is built up and it's illegal and costs money so before you know it, you're chasing that bag. At least I was back then. But there were always the rare guys who were able to bang H on the weekend and stay straight during the week. I never got how. As for these pills now, they weren't around during my heyday and by the time they were I was on methadone then subutex so they wouldn't work anyhow. It is so hypocritcal to say "i get my pills from the doctor so I'm better than you". An opiate is an opiate is an opiate. I would think oxy is safer than H only because you know what your getting as far as strength and cut, etc. I have seen many die of OD's because the H was too strong. I find the idea of a functioning Heroin addict to be very interesting as I rarely if ever saw it back in my day.
 
People who are opiate naive are often shocked when I tell them that there are people who use heroin and or oxy everyday and function in society like normal people. A lot of people definitely have a distorted view of opiate addiction. I remember one time I was sitting talking to this girl who is a friend of mine and she told me (we were talking about drugs) "whatever you do don't get addicted to morphine or oxycontin" she said this to me and I was thinking, I'm on morphine this very minute and have been using it or oxycodone, or vicodin, or subs, everyday for the last year.

She never had any idea that I had an opiate habit, the only thing she ever picked up on was that I wasn't drinking much anymore, but I just told her it was because I was sick of alcohol, which I was. One time she thought I was a little high on something but I just said it was weed and the subject never came up again.

Alot of people have no idea that people they see everyday are addicted to opiates like oxy or heroin.

One girl I used to score pain pills with who I was attracted to confided to me that she had been an IV heroin user for eight years, I was instantly more attracted to her and she became my girlfriend for quite a long time. But I'm unusual, I always wanted to be a junkie, or just felt that I was one. I grew up idolizing William Burroughs and Charlie Parker and heroin just seemed to be in every scene that I was drawn to.

I still haven't done Heroin, but I've done just about every other opiate. This is an interesting thread, because it makes me think, do I think that I'm better than Heroin users just because I get my opiates in pill or poppy pod form? an opiate is an opiate, they all have their own little unique differences but basically, yeah, an opiate is an opiate is an opiate. Heroin has been around my neighborhood a lot lately, or at least I'm running into it more often. I'm sure I'll end up trying it at some point but it's probably the stigma that's kept me from trying it, cuz I have no reservations about taking any other opiates, and I don't judge or look down on heroin users, I've known quite a few over the years. Unfortunately two of them who were closest to me died from Heroin overdoses, so that may be part of the reason I haven't tried it yet when it's right in front of me.
 
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This thread amazes me, a whole bunch of people on the slippery slope of the inside of a pitcher plant called heroin. I'm addicted to cigarettes and alcohol, i smoke weed or hash, so here i surf the internet tonight and arrive here. Holy shit, i thought i had issues???!!?? You silly cunts are actually discussing the potential of a functional H-addict! Excuse my cartesian common-sense but; if people end up on the streets prostituting themselves because of h addiction then maybe that drug has a very strong chemical determinance that should be steered well clear of? Don't fuck with that, it will fuck you up, oops you fucked with it already? Ok get well clear, asap. Don't look for reasons to support a claim that sticking with h might not have serious negative repercussions. Functional addict? Who says? You?
 
i'd say as far as addiction goes it's the same, but in terms of danger heroin wins hands down.
it's much easier to control dosage when you know exactly what you're taking, whereas with heroin one could be doing x number of bags of 2/10 strength heroin a day and then one day get 10/10 strength, do the regular dose and OD.
 
I think there are a number of reasons for this. First and foremost I would say that mainstream opioid addiction through pain pills, especially illicitly obtained pain pills, is a relatively new trend. Heroin as been the most demonised drug for decades now and as a result just has a much greater stigma.

I also think IV use is a factor. I would suggest a much higher % of regular heroin users IV compared to other opiate addicts/users. As this is the highest risk ROA it carries a higher stigma and this influences peoples perception of heroin.

Pharmaceutical companies have done a damn good job of promoting popping a pill as a quick solution, I believe subconsciously society on a whole views popping a pill as a lot more normal and less "junkie" than sniffing a line or putting a spike in your vein.

Finally, the uncertainty and possible contamination of dope compared to quality controlled pharmaceuticals influences the perception of danger a lot. Rightly so, almost all heroin OD deaths could be avoided if the user knew the purity.

There is definately less stigma attached to the pill scene than the H scene, is it justified? In my opinion it can go either way, I mean from reading Bluelight it seems a lot of modern heroin addicts started out as pill addicts, as a result it is probably reasonable to conclude your average heroin addict is further down the depths of addiction than your average pill popper. However, it has to be judged on a case by case basis, and someone is certainly no more or less moral because their opiate of choice is heroin. One interesting thing to point out however is that a heroin habit seems to be much cheaper to maintain in the states than an illegitimate pill habit, it may well be the case in future (or now for all I know? I am in Australia) that a higher percentage of petty crimes will be attributed to pill users than heroin users due to the higher cost.
 
drug_mentor said:
I think there are a number of reasons for this. First and foremost I would say that mainstream opioid addiction through pain pills, especially illicitly obtained pain pills, is a relatively new trend. Heroin as been the most demonised drug for decades now and as a result just has a much greater stigma.

I also think IV use is a factor. I would suggest a much higher % of regular heroin users IV compared to other opiate addicts/users. As this is the highest risk ROA it carries a higher stigma and this influences peoples perception of heroin.

Pharmaceutical companies have done a damn good job of promoting popping a pill as a quick solution, I believe subconsciously society on a whole views popping a pill as a lot more normal and less "junkie" than sniffing a line or putting a spike in your vein.

Finally, the uncertainty and possible contamination of dope compared to quality controlled pharmaceuticals influences the perception of danger a lot. Rightly so, almost all heroin OD deaths could be avoided if the user knew the purity.

There is definately less stigma attached to the pill scene than the H scene, is it justified? In my opinion it can go either way, I mean from reading Bluelight it seems a lot of modern heroin addicts started out as pill addicts, as a result it is probably reasonable to conclude your average heroin addict is further down the depths of addiction than your average pill popper. However, it has to be judged on a case by case basis, and someone is certainly no more or less moral because their opiate of choice is heroin. One interesting thing to point out however is that a heroin habit seems to be much cheaper to maintain in the states than an illegitimate pill habit, it may well be the case in future (or now for all I know? I am in Australia) that a higher percentage of petty crimes will be attributed to pill users than heroin users due to the higher cost.
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Really surprising that H is so much cheaper in the US than i Australia...actually probably not.....just about anything is cheaper overseas....just look at our house and car prices-ridiculous.
 
I don't know how much cheaper H is in the long run though, I'd never tried H when I first posted in this thread but I gave in to my curiosity and tried it a few months ago. I loved it too much I think, it didn't cost that much at first but by the end of two weeks of daily use I was buying a gram a day.... it was much harder for me to control than other opiates I've used but overall it felt just like other opiates but with it's own special quality that I love. I only smoked it and the thing I loved about it was how it hit me so quickly, and the ritual with the tinfoil and lighter and what not, almost reminded me of my weed smoking days except the high was much much better.

I tried H one day and bought it every day for the next two weeks without even thinking about it, I've had a handful of two week runs with H since I tried it and realized I prefer just being on subs. Less hassle and it's easier for me to function on subs, I could function fine on H but having to score everyday became a hassle after the one good connection I found got arrested. I kinda took that arrest as a sign to slow down and get on subs.

So I'm still a junkie, just a legal one. I don't tell anyone about my H adventure in my real life because of the stigma attached to it, I know for a fact certain people would treat me differently and not trust me anymore. I would happily continue to use H everyday if I had the money and the right connections, but I have too many things I want to do, also my tolerance to H seemed to rise faster than with any other opiate I've used. Overall I think people blow it all out of proportion, H really is just another opiate, it's just more available and cheaper overall..... but any kind of escalating opiate habit is rarely cheap.

At the moment I think methamphetamine is actually more stigmatized than heroin, at least it seems that's the general opinion amongst people I know.
 
The stigma attached to heroin is mostly because people are naive about opiates and opioids. For instance, I imagine most people that don't use drugs, wouldn't even know that hydrocodone and heroin were chemically in the same family of drugs.

I remember when I was in college a four years ago. My girlfriends best friend would demonize me for sniffing heroin, but she herself was using percocet every night.

I think once you turn to I.V'ing pills though, your looked at in the exact same light as a heroin addict would be looked at. Maybe even worse. It's the shooting thing that really freaks people out, and my advice to everyone here, is to NEVER tell anyone who doesn't know you shoot, that you shoot.

Even when I was just sniffing heroin, the idea of shooting it seemed incredibly hard core and scary. I wanted to try it of course, but was really scared to. I felt that THAT was what really made you a junky. six months or so after I started sniffing heroin, I did learn to shoot up, at a rehab of all places, and now have been doing so for the last 4 almost five years.

The reason people are especially afraid of I.V drug use, is because of disease and because it looks kind of scary I guess. When I switched over to I.V drugs, I found my addiction grew 10x worse, because I shot up anything I could, pills, coke , heroin etc. My hygeine was horrible, and even still, now with all the knowledge Ive gained on this site for safe shooting, I still find my self using needles until they break of in your arm.

The way I look at it really is Junk is junk. Junk is oxy, junk is heroin, junk is opium, junk is percocet.
 
pip_gazebo said:
This thread amazes me, a whole bunch of people on the slippery slope of the inside of a pitcher plant called heroin. I'm addicted to cigarettes and alcohol, i smoke weed or hash, so here i surf the internet tonight and arrive here. Holy shit, i thought i had issues???!!?? You silly cunts are actually discussing the potential of a functional H-addict! Excuse my cartesian common-sense but; if people end up on the streets prostituting themselves because of h addiction then maybe that drug has a very strong chemical determinance that should be steered well clear of? Don't fuck with that, it will fuck you up, oops you fucked with it already? Ok get well clear, asap. Don't look for reasons to support a claim that sticking with h might not have serious negative repercussions. Functional addict? Who says? You?
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I've never done H or shot anything but your common sense sucks ass. Where was your common sense when you started smoking cigs? Thought it was fun to be addicted to something that cost money and didn't even get you high? Just something you have do all the time or physically withdraw from?

How bout the booze holmes? I've known more chicks willing to fuck for coke than H. Shockingly enough barely anyone who does H ends up sucking dick for cash believe it or not. Wino's got H addicts outnumbered on the street by a longshot. Booze makes people fuck random strangers not H. Shooting does a number on your veins ( and if someone snorts it then that dosen't even apply, everyone seems to think most users shoot when alot of people just snort it) and obviously feels good and is physically addicting. Alcohol is neurotoxic
(while Heroin is not) fucks with your liver and stomach and causes fucking cancer. The worst people do on heroin is nod while drunk people do more stupid shit than just about any other group of people. Also physically addicting except alcohol withdrawal is worse and can kill you while H withdrawal just sucks minus the potential for life threatening seizures.

Most opiate users never even get a hangover, go to the worst hangover thread here on bluelight, you'll see that people who have done crack,meth, and stims either attribute booze soley or a combination of their drug and booze combined. I've done a whole shitload of diff drugs and the morning after a night of drinking is definitely the worst I've ever felt. Their are opiates that are basically the same shit but stronger than heroin like oxymorphone and hydromorphone that are prescribed by doctors for medical reasons, the only thing alcohol is really good for making is solutions. Otherwise medically its treated like poison, which is pretty accurate because when you compare the incredible physical damage of drinking (including the brain damage drinking can cause) to the physical damage of heroin is just about the most lopsided battle you'll ever see.

Now I both drink and smoke, but I don't feel the need to stand on a mountain of pitiful self righteousness. Plus even better since your an addict of alcohol your already worse off than the MAJORITY( yeah believe it or not) of people I know who have used Heroin since well, you know, they snorted it once or twice and said fuck that not so great and went and so far years later haven't ended up addicted to anything.

Obviously being addicted to anything is not awesome. And I definitely feel for any addict. Not you though, trying to feel superior when your obviously inferior to most of the people here is just a lack of common sense.
 
I think there is no difference in a heroin user and a pill user. Even when it comes to crimes I feel that no matter what opioid you are using, if your going to do illegal activity to get it, it does not matter which one it is. Actually a pill addiction is way more costly now then Heroin addiction. I do believe that society looks at a heroin addict as a junkie more then they do pill addict. Maybe the reason for this as they are unaware of how many people inject pills. Which to me make no sense. In my community it is very difficult to get heroin but there is pills on every corner. So I feel society should look at pills as the worse of the two as it is so much easier to obtain at least in my community. Heroin is a rare treat around here.
 
pip_gazebo said:
this thread amazes me, a whole bunch of people on the slippery slope of the inside of a pitcher plant called heroin. I'm addicted to cigarettes and alcohol, i smoke weed or hash, so here i surf the internet tonight and arrive here. Holy shit, i thought i had issues???!!?? You silly cunts are actually discussing the potential of a functional h-addict! Excuse my cartesian common-sense but; if people end up on the streets prostituting themselves because of h addiction then maybe that drug has a very strong chemical determinance that should be steered well clear of? Don't fuck with that, it will fuck you up, oops you fucked with it already? Ok get well clear, asap. Don't look for reasons to support a claim that sticking with h might not have serious negative repercussions. Functional addict? Who says? You?
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i think you need to read this post again as we are discussing the difference of a prescription pill addiction and heroin addiction and how society views the two. If you don"t have an opinion on the subject why take the time to write such an ignorant post keep surfing else where.
 
attention junkies

Last week , the us army introduced a new anti-poppy spray in afghanistan, they are paying camel jockeys $10 a day to walk around poppy fields hitting the plants, aircraft are dive bombing large plantations, I expect heroin to triple in price i next 10 weeks then go into ultiples in coming months. Heroin is going to be over for most people, the pharm companies are gonna be your last resort. Get ready, there is a stormcoming....

And our flag was still there!
 
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