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"lot of drug addicts around but nobody notices" Everybody notices. Nobody talks about it. I hope you understand you are one of the lucky ones, and that it eats

"lot of drug addicts around but nobody notices" Everybody notices. Nobody talks about it. I hope you understand you are one of the lucky ones, and that it eats people and family alive. Social programs and mental health programs ... social workers involved in that area could probably write books. It's a horrible, horrible drug. I never said it was neurotoxic. It just is just a big old dopamine button and it's incredibly difficult for many people to not let it consume them (to the point of stealing and lying from whomever is necessary). The tolerance that builds up and the pain of withdrawal make people do things they would never do otherwise. A really substantial number of people can't self regulate opiates (Prince, Tom Petty, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and 70,000 other people per year) and dealers can and will trap regular people in addiction to the maximal extent they can. If it's legal, it will only get worse.

maxxxxx 8y ago
"If it's legal, it will only get worse. " All the stuff you wrote also applies to alcohol and there we decided a long time that prohibition doesn't work.
- throwaway5752 8y ago
  I think that ignores how much worse heroin is than alcohol on every metric under typical usage and in the aggregate. We have prohibition all over the place. We prohit murder. We prohibit drunk driving even though we allow drinking. There is no obvious dividing line between what drugs should be illegal, regulated, or how much regulation (of which prohibition the maximal subset). Unless you don't think it should be illegal to give heroin to a baby, for example, then we are already talking about degrees of regulation. Talk of prohibition is useless. Do you want a Nordic model of highly regulated, decriminalized? Because that is a whole different ballgame. I really don't care about the policy that much, either, I just wanted to strongly push back on people minimizing the dangers of heroin. It is a lethal, life destroying drug and it's one of only a few I would strongly advice people to never even try once, regardless of legality. If I can convince a single HN commenter to avoid it, then I'm happy.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    " Do you want a Nordic model of highly regulated, decriminalized? " Yes this would allow addicted people to participate in normal life openly and allow for therapy options. Prison is very expensive so that money could be shifted to treatment. BTW, don't minimize the dangers of alcohol. Alcohol is often involved in traffic accidents, domestic violence, and gun deaths. It also has a lot of negative health effects. A huge number of people die from alcohol every year.

maxxxxx 8y ago

"If it's legal, it will only get worse. " All the stuff you wrote also applies to alcohol and there we decided a long time that prohibition doesn't work.

throwaway5752 8y ago
I think that ignores how much worse heroin is than alcohol on every metric under typical usage and in the aggregate. We have prohibition all over the place. We prohit murder. We prohibit drunk driving even though we allow drinking. There is no obvious dividing line between what drugs should be illegal, regulated, or how much regulation (of which prohibition the maximal subset). Unless you don't think it should be illegal to give heroin to a baby, for example, then we are already talking about degrees of regulation. Talk of prohibition is useless. Do you want a Nordic model of highly regulated, decriminalized? Because that is a whole different ballgame. I really don't care about the policy that much, either, I just wanted to strongly push back on people minimizing the dangers of heroin. It is a lethal, life destroying drug and it's one of only a few I would strongly advice people to never even try once, regardless of legality. If I can convince a single HN commenter to avoid it, then I'm happy.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  " Do you want a Nordic model of highly regulated, decriminalized? " Yes this would allow addicted people to participate in normal life openly and allow for therapy options. Prison is very expensive so that money could be shifted to treatment. BTW, don't minimize the dangers of alcohol. Alcohol is often involved in traffic accidents, domestic violence, and gun deaths. It also has a lot of negative health effects. A huge number of people die from alcohol every year.