My issue with using 'recreationally' is that the negative effects seem to be too pronounced, once you've been seriously addicted. I'm not attempting to use recreationally, rather - I'm at the tail-end of a spout of heavy use, where I'm, tapering isn't the right word, petering out perhaps, basically - at the moment I'm using heroin roughly once a fortnight and just using a relatively small amount. At the moment, it works out that I'm currently using less in two months, than I was previously using in a single day, which should be a huge achievement, and in a sense it is, however - it is still surprisingly disrupting to my life. I find now, compared to many many years ago where I could use one night and feel pleasant, if a little tired, the following day. Now- I use one night, I feel completely rotten the next day and perhaps the next and next after that too, after just using for one night. And then I still get stuck in cycles, like - I feel so awful I end up buying some codeine to get me across the line so I can go to work, but then I get stuck in the cycle of codeine for the whole fucking week, so I find then each weekend is shit because I am 'drying out' and feeling restless.
I really don't think it's physiologically possible to go back to recreational use, at least - not without suffering for it far more than the value of the high. And at the point you're sacrificing more than you're gaining, it's pretty hard to argue you don't have a problem.