MyDoorsAreOpen;11540196 said:
toothpastedog, I agree that the legalization of heroin would cut down considerably on shady deeds done by heroin addicts. But suppose the hypothesis that heroin use carries a strong risk of permanently impairing a person's ability to find joy and motivation in life were to be tested repeatedly and find robust support.
Please note that I acknowledge that this hypothesis is not, to date, scientifically supported, probably largely due to the legal red tape and ethical issues involved in studying any Schedule I substance in human users. But since this is a widely held belief with much anecdotal support, it merits scientific study, if only because it's a belief with profound effects on public policy towards heroin and its users.
I digress. If heroin truly does have a unique capacity for indelibly training people to want nothing in life but more of the drug, then legalizing it does nothing to solve this problem. Again, I parade out the rat with a chip in its pleasure centers, operated by a lever switch in front of it, which will continue to press the lever until it dies of starvation or has permanently damaged the neural circuitry for pleasure. Would you defend the rights of a merchant to peddle a similar technology for people? Yes, we can wax philosophical all day long about a person's right to throw their life away. If you're a strict libertarian / classical liberal, then you and I probably won't ever see fully eye to eye on this, and I won't bore you or waste my own time with such foofy-doofy things as compassion and our duty to our fellow man. But no matter what your political beliefs, making attractive things that carry a high risk for harm more readily available, without mitigating the harm, makes no sense at all.
If unlimited quantities of pure pharmaceutical-grade heroin, quality-made sterile periphernalia, and safe, clean places to obtain and use them were legal, widely available, and (just to make my point stronger) cheap or free for all under some government plan, would you encourage your son or daughter to try heroin? I would not.
Last I read (I can get a citation for this if you like), roughly a quarter of all people who try heroin become addicted to it. Remember those stories about the guys in Asia who died after playing MMORPGs in Internet cafes for days nonstop with nothing to eat but tea and instant ramen? Those internet cafes are still there, because these incidents, while concerning, are rare enough to still be entertaining and not all that threatening. Those Internet cafes would be no more if anywhere near a quarter of their clientele reeled towards a similar fate.
Now granted yes, people who encounter and choose to try heroin are not a fair cross section of the population. It's likely there are other factors that make such people more likely to get hooked on any highly pleasurable activity more likely. Am I willing to consider that if every person tried heroin once, far fewer than a quarter of all people would ever abuse it? Perhaps. But I still think it wouldn't be a negligible percentage, and I'm willing to bet it'd be a greater fraction than the percentage of people who ever ingest alcohol, or even prescription oxycodone or hydrocodone, who go on to abuse. Again, more study is needed.
If heroin were legal, cheap, pure, and given a fair try at social acceptability, would most people habituated to it continue to lead perfectly normal lives, fulfilling all their work, family, and social obligations, except having to duck into a private room a few times every day to give themselves a shot, just like Type I diabetics? No doubt some could. But is the nature of this drug and its long-term effects on human neuropsychology such that most regular users would blend seamlessly and cause non-users no affront or inconvenience directly attributable to the effect of the drug? My doubts on this stem from seeing people like Trey Anastasio.
I'll end this by saying that although I'm biased, I truly do want to be as informed as possible. As I hope to never try heroin, and haven't kept touch with most people I've known who have, my experience will necessarily be limited, and I'm willing to admit I might be entirely misguided. I'm willing to entertain the notion that the problems heroin causes people are entirely a result of, rather than a justification for, its demonization by society, as is the case for marijuana. But based on my limited experiences as I enumerated in another post, I suspect it's not quite that simple.
Really good post, very well thought out and I pretty much agree with you. Especially the underlined part. Again, I appreciate your input here, as you present a side of the debate going on here that is truly significant. Better yet, you present it in what I can only say seems to be a very thoughtful way - something the vast majority of folks who hold heroin to be the ultimate devil's drug do not (not saying you're that narrow minded, quite the opposite).
The whole "uniqueness" thesis about heroin still kinda bugs me though. Although they would seem the exception (as they have/had pretty much more or less legal access to their opioid of choice - the vast majority of us do not have those luxuries), I've known a few professionals who would argue that their use of heroin increases their QOL, or at the least does nothing to diminish it. I look to what-his-name, one of those old dude who founded Johns Hopkins med school as one example - someone whose opioid, well, opiate, habit, seems to have done nothing to hamper his invaluable contributions to society/medicine. IIRC his DOC was morphine, I believe he took around 120mg or 160mg/day until his 80's when he, for I think medical reasons, had to half his dose, although I believe he continued taking it till his dying day (died in his 90's afaicr). Him aside, I have known many a morphine addict. Those with big morphine habits, comparable to big heroin habits, generally speaking, at the end of the day seem to have been neither better nor worse off.
Frankly, I think that long acting opioids, taken in maintenance situations for long periods of time daily, those are the type who end up without recourse when it comes to living a enjoyable, fulfilling life w/o their DOC opioid. These folks seem no different from those who have used heroin for long periods of time, especially daily, and have considerable habits - they likewise cannot (or have an incredibly difficult time) making any transition from life on opioids to life "free" from opioids.
That said, I used heroin, first mildly, then moderately, then heavily, although often not daily, for five years, and I've found life to be much more enjoyable and fulfilling without it. Although that's mostly because of the legal issues that comes with dealing with heroin and all the problems associated with IDU. Not to mention I've finally found what would seem the ideal way to deal with my anxiety problems, which was the reason I got into opioids and then heroin in the first place (it's all about the beta blockers! fuck benzos, that kind of dependency and w/d scare the shit out of me, literally, and I've never even experienced).
If I could get heroin cheaply, or for free, and most importantly legally, iono, I might still choose to use it. Then again, I always preferred long acting to short acting opioids - and, believe it or not, mixed agonist-antagonist opioids or opioid preparations. Most working or professional heroin users, those "successful" ones out there that do in fact exist (although they exist under the radar, which is of course the only way they can use and continue leading otherwise successful lives), as well as the stereotypical thieving-junkbox types, would certainly be better off if heroin were treated as such.
And, I mean, come on. I hope most folks around here know enough not to buy into the whole deterrence thing when it comes to prohibition, drug policy/laws/enforcement and incarceration/punishment in America...
But, I too, digress
These folks, especially given a lack of access to opioids in this US of A, not to mention what would seem to be most of the world, people who are able to live a fulfilling and worthwhile life while also using opioids, remain the exception to the rule.
I'd appreciate any references or citations to research into this uniqueness theory regarding heroin. Thank again mate!
