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I literally cannot understand why this is being downvoted. Prescribed heroin would save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in ER OD cases and the acquis

I literally cannot understand why this is being downvoted. Prescribed heroin would save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in ER OD cases and the acquisitive crime that this disorder causes. Shame on you HN.

snowpanda 10y ago
>Shame on you HN. Yeah shame on people for having a different opinion then yours.
- JshWright 10y ago
  No... shame on them for expressing that disagreement by downvoting a thoughtful comment.
  - paxcoder 10y ago
    Maybe war on drugs opponents downvoted what they interpreted as sarcasm
Dagwoodie 10y ago
There is a fallacy at work here where people automatically assume that outright banning a substance through legal action is always wise or even always effective. And if the people die as a result, our attitude is essentially stuck on 'screw em, they shouldn't have been breaking the law anyway'. Meanwhile, with proper health care and psychiatric care, the same people who could have stayed within the system, could have greatly boosted research into all kinds of conditions that compel people to take hard drugs in the first place and we could have had this issue solved long ago. Instead, the medical industry is hamstrung in helping them almost as much as the addicts themselves. But politicians from the left to the right get to look good on camera, and journalists can bravely declare more drugs will be off the streets as they show children walking to school, ensuring nobody will ever suspect they're setting those same children up for severe problems that will go untreated.
jbigelow76 10y ago
>Prescribed heroin would save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in ER OD cases and the acquisitive crime that this disorder causes. If you get a prescription for heroin that would probably lead to addiction right? Now as an addict you want more, so you go back to the doctor but they won't prescribe anymore ostensibly to prevent overdose. So now you have an addict looking for a way to score more outside of a doctor prescription which would still open them up to every single risk that currently exists today. Seems like the end result is going to be the same either way unless doctors continually up the dosages prescribed, no?
- grzm 10y ago
  If you get a prescription for heroin that would probably lead to addiction right? Under what circumstances do you think doctors would be prescribing heroin? Because a person wants to give it a try? For recreational use? Doctors already prescribe (under heavy regulation) narcotics for pain relief. If they were to prescribe heroin, I can't imagine it would be cavalierly prescribed for anything, other to address existing addiction, not unlike methadone treatments today.
  - drvdevd 10y ago
    > (under heavy regulation) ... and this is where most Heroin addicts start, actually, through prescription opiate use. Once a physical addiction is formed, heroin can be a cheaper or more accessible alternative to a prescription for say, Oxycontin. I thought John Oliver had a good segment on it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5pdPrQFjo2o https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5pdPrQFjo2o
    - aianus 10y ago
      > Once a physical addiction is formed, heroin can be a cheaper or more accessible alternative to a prescription for say, Oxycontin. Something is wrong with the system for prescribing Oxycontin if black market heroin is ever cheaper or more accessible.
      - 10y ago
aaron695 10y ago
> I literally cannot understand why this is being downvoted. Because it's off topic? You can't seriously think HN is not anti-prohibition? To move forward we need to be practical. One city in the entire US is getting an injection room. Why start talking about the legalisation of heroin? If it works but it can't be implemented why discuss at this point when we are discussing something that does greatly help and is being implemented.
- CaptSpify 10y ago
  Why do you feel this is off-topic?
  - aaron695 10y ago
    Injecting rooms ≠ safe access to drugs? These are different approaches, not necessarily mutually exclusive but by changing the topic you devaluing the important discussion of injecting rooms. This article is about injecting rooms not ending prohibition I think it is off-topic? There are plenty of articles on decriminalisation and legalisation out there to have that discussion.
    - grzm 10y ago
      The guidelines state that "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" is on topic. At least one person thought so: the submitter. Others have contributed to the the discussion: likely they think it's appropriate for HN as well. If you think it's inappropriate for HN, feel free to flag the submission and move on.
    - reddytowns 10y ago
      It will, ineffective, become so, though. Just like in Japan, near every pachinko parlor there is a window where you can trade your "prize" for cash, the underworld will set up shop right next door.

snowpanda 10y ago

>Shame on you HN. Yeah shame on people for having a different opinion then yours.

JshWright 10y ago
No... shame on them for expressing that disagreement by downvoting a thoughtful comment.
- paxcoder 10y ago
  Maybe war on drugs opponents downvoted what they interpreted as sarcasm

Dagwoodie 10y ago

There is a fallacy at work here where people automatically assume that outright banning a substance through legal action is always wise or even always effective. And if the people die as a result, our attitude is essentially stuck on 'screw em, they shouldn't have been breaking the law anyway'. Meanwhile, with proper health care and psychiatric care, the same people who could have stayed within the system, could have greatly boosted research into all kinds of conditions that compel people to take hard drugs in the first place and we could have had this issue solved long ago. Instead, the medical industry is hamstrung in helping them almost as much as the addicts themselves. But politicians from the left to the right get to look good on camera, and journalists can bravely declare more drugs will be off the streets as they show children walking to school, ensuring nobody will ever suspect they're setting those same children up for severe problems that will go untreated.

jbigelow76 10y ago

>Prescribed heroin would save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in ER OD cases and the acquisitive crime that this disorder causes. If you get a prescription for heroin that would probably lead to addiction right? Now as an addict you want more, so you go back to the doctor but they won't prescribe anymore ostensibly to prevent overdose. So now you have an addict looking for a way to score more outside of a doctor prescription which would still open them up to every single risk that currently exists today. Seems like the end result is going to be the same either way unless doctors continually up the dosages prescribed, no?

grzm 10y ago
If you get a prescription for heroin that would probably lead to addiction right? Under what circumstances do you think doctors would be prescribing heroin? Because a person wants to give it a try? For recreational use? Doctors already prescribe (under heavy regulation) narcotics for pain relief. If they were to prescribe heroin, I can't imagine it would be cavalierly prescribed for anything, other to address existing addiction, not unlike methadone treatments today.
- drvdevd 10y ago
  > (under heavy regulation) ... and this is where most Heroin addicts start, actually, through prescription opiate use. Once a physical addiction is formed, heroin can be a cheaper or more accessible alternative to a prescription for say, Oxycontin. I thought John Oliver had a good segment on it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5pdPrQFjo2o https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5pdPrQFjo2o
  - aianus 10y ago
    > Once a physical addiction is formed, heroin can be a cheaper or more accessible alternative to a prescription for say, Oxycontin. Something is wrong with the system for prescribing Oxycontin if black market heroin is ever cheaper or more accessible.
    - 10y ago

aaron695 10y ago

> I literally cannot understand why this is being downvoted. Because it's off topic? You can't seriously think HN is not anti-prohibition? To move forward we need to be practical. One city in the entire US is getting an injection room. Why start talking about the legalisation of heroin? If it works but it can't be implemented why discuss at this point when we are discussing something that does greatly help and is being implemented.

CaptSpify 10y ago
Why do you feel this is off-topic?
- aaron695 10y ago
  Injecting rooms ≠ safe access to drugs? These are different approaches, not necessarily mutually exclusive but by changing the topic you devaluing the important discussion of injecting rooms. This article is about injecting rooms not ending prohibition I think it is off-topic? There are plenty of articles on decriminalisation and legalisation out there to have that discussion.
  - grzm 10y ago
    The guidelines state that "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" is on topic. At least one person thought so: the submitter. Others have contributed to the the discussion: likely they think it's appropriate for HN as well. If you think it's inappropriate for HN, feel free to flag the submission and move on.
  - reddytowns 10y ago
    It will, ineffective, become so, though. Just like in Japan, near every pachinko parlor there is a window where you can trade your "prize" for cash, the underworld will set up shop right next door.