6 ms·

Because heroin is so addictive and powerful that it changes the structure and function of your brain. It will destroy and kill a person in the blink of an eye.

Because heroin is so addictive and powerful that it changes the structure and function of your brain. It will destroy and kill a person in the blink of an eye. People will steal from the parents and kids, prostitute themselves, or just about anything to satisfy their addiction. You lump in cocaine as though all schedule 1 drugs are equal. You are having two different conversations. One of them is complicated (why are LSD, peyote, and marijuana classified with opioids? why are they enforced and punished so unevenly along race and class lines?) Opioids are critical medical tools for pain management. The solution is to have doctors decide when it is necessary and to have pharmacists manage its distribution. Why this works is that doctors and pharmacists will be delicensed and possibly go to jail for this, and they generally have a highly asymmetric amount to lose from doing so. Opioids are unlike any other drug. Look at national death statistics. Read this article. If they weren't so necessary for critical pain management and hospice care they'd be completely illegal.

kirstenbirgit 7y ago
It's possible to overdose on anything. Heroin is dangerous because of cuts like fentanyl and various contaminants, not because you just inherently die randomly after using it. One could use heroin your whole life with no ill effects. In that way, it's comparable to coffee. Addicts simply need cheap access to legal heroin to stop using. Only after that's taken care of can they start getting their life back on track and to be about something other than drugs.
- qz_ 7y ago
  Not sure why you're being downvoted, you're completely correct. The only significant negative effect heroin use has on you besides addiction is constipation. For a heroin addict, the problem isn't the heroin, it's the absence of heroin.
  - throwaway5752 7y ago
    To anyone who reads the above comments minimizing opioid addiction: heroin will eat you from the inside and kill you eventually. It is the most evil drug that has ever existed. Before it kills you it will ruin your mind irreversibly. Constipation is the least of the problems. Never use it, ever.
    - qz_ 7y ago
      It won’t kill you though. All the ways heroin can kill you are direct consequences of its prohibition.
      - speedplane 7y ago
        > All the ways heroin can kill you are direct consequences of its prohibition. Most people die from heroin by overdosing (taking too much). Very often, this is a result of mixing heroin with other drugs and pushing the limits of what a human body can tolerate. If it were legalized and regulated, maybe some accidental overdosing could be prevented, but there would be plenty of deaths. Heroin is pretty different from other drugs because it's pretty easy to die from it. It's nearly impossible to die from smoking marijuana. Even alcohol is safer if you're not driving a vehicle: you're far more likely to pass out before you get alcohol poisoning. Heroin is significantly more dangerous. A slightly higher dose or a new formulation can easily kill you.
        kirstenbirgit 7y ago
        People rarely just die due to random ODs when their heroin is pure, like you're suggesting. It takes more than that, especially when one has a large tolerance like all long-term users do. There's 2 groups of heroin overdoses. 1) Varying amounts of cut like fentanyl. Due to heroin being illegal, users have no way of knowing whether their drugs are pure, so it's hard to gauge the dose. The exact same dose can kill you if there's a little too much fentanyl. 2) Taking the same amount after e.g. rehab or tolerance break. Due to the way heroin tolerance works, after a while of not using it, your body will reset the tolerance. So you come out of rehab and of course you want to do heroin again, and many unfortunately start right at their old (extremely high) dosage. Legalization would obviously help no. 1, but I also think it would prevent deaths due to no. 2, since users would not have to go through rehab until they're actually ready for it. When the system forces you to stop, most users will just immediately start again when they have the possibility.
        speedplane 7y ago
ravar 7y ago
Cocaine is not schedule one.
- throwaway5752 7y ago
  You are completely correct, thank you.

kirstenbirgit 7y ago

It's possible to overdose on anything. Heroin is dangerous because of cuts like fentanyl and various contaminants, not because you just inherently die randomly after using it. One could use heroin your whole life with no ill effects. In that way, it's comparable to coffee. Addicts simply need cheap access to legal heroin to stop using. Only after that's taken care of can they start getting their life back on track and to be about something other than drugs.

qz_ 7y ago
Not sure why you're being downvoted, you're completely correct. The only significant negative effect heroin use has on you besides addiction is constipation. For a heroin addict, the problem isn't the heroin, it's the absence of heroin.
- throwaway5752 7y ago
  To anyone who reads the above comments minimizing opioid addiction: heroin will eat you from the inside and kill you eventually. It is the most evil drug that has ever existed. Before it kills you it will ruin your mind irreversibly. Constipation is the least of the problems. Never use it, ever.
  - qz_ 7y ago
    It won’t kill you though. All the ways heroin can kill you are direct consequences of its prohibition.
    - speedplane 7y ago
      > All the ways heroin can kill you are direct consequences of its prohibition. Most people die from heroin by overdosing (taking too much). Very often, this is a result of mixing heroin with other drugs and pushing the limits of what a human body can tolerate. If it were legalized and regulated, maybe some accidental overdosing could be prevented, but there would be plenty of deaths. Heroin is pretty different from other drugs because it's pretty easy to die from it. It's nearly impossible to die from smoking marijuana. Even alcohol is safer if you're not driving a vehicle: you're far more likely to pass out before you get alcohol poisoning. Heroin is significantly more dangerous. A slightly higher dose or a new formulation can easily kill you.
      - kirstenbirgit 7y ago
        People rarely just die due to random ODs when their heroin is pure, like you're suggesting. It takes more than that, especially when one has a large tolerance like all long-term users do. There's 2 groups of heroin overdoses. 1) Varying amounts of cut like fentanyl. Due to heroin being illegal, users have no way of knowing whether their drugs are pure, so it's hard to gauge the dose. The exact same dose can kill you if there's a little too much fentanyl. 2) Taking the same amount after e.g. rehab or tolerance break. Due to the way heroin tolerance works, after a while of not using it, your body will reset the tolerance. So you come out of rehab and of course you want to do heroin again, and many unfortunately start right at their old (extremely high) dosage. Legalization would obviously help no. 1, but I also think it would prevent deaths due to no. 2, since users would not have to go through rehab until they're actually ready for it. When the system forces you to stop, most users will just immediately start again when they have the possibility.
        speedplane 7y ago

ravar 7y ago

Cocaine is not schedule one.

throwaway5752 7y ago
You are completely correct, thank you.