All I can say about this is "Good Luck with That". I have never been addicted to heroine, so I cannot speak from personal experience. But I have seen its impa

All I can say about this is "Good Luck with That". I have never been addicted to heroine, so I cannot speak from personal experience. But I have seen its impact first-hand, thankfully, a number of times I can only count with one of my hands. The way I explain addiction to my kids is the way it was explained to me by an addict (alcohol, Vicodin and others): (1) There's no difference between "Psychologically Addictive" and "Physically Addictive" -- he said this in the context that he was an abuser of alcohol, every day, but was not chemically addicted to it and required no medicine to quit, but it was easily as difficult as quitting Vicodin. (2) Addicts don't love their drugs more than their family/kids/morals -- your body uses addiction to make you eat, drink, etc -- go without those things for long enough and you will start to sacrifice things that are otherwise more important. Imagine your desire to do this particular drug is substantially stronger than your desire to eat or drink. Having the benefit of a few decades away from childhood and been witness to some really incredible individuals' lives being flushed down the toilet, I don't believe either of those two statements to be sensationalized in any way. It's internalizing these things and understanding that the people I know who became addicts were very strong people. One was a person I counted among the "Great Men"[0] in my life (and still do). Politically speaking, I tend to fall pretty narrowly on the whole "victimless crime shouldn't be criminal[1]", so my puritanical beliefs that you should "just stay as far away from that stuff as you possibly can" doesn't translate into support for the War on Drugs(tm). Personally speaking, I've watched people maintain a heroine addiction for years, Vicodin for decades. In the early days, they managed OK. They all quit because the drug became it--the single need that remained. That's what it does. People nearing this stage delude themselves into thinking it's not affecting their lives/loved ones, but I'd be curious -- with the benefit of hindsight bias -- at what point a former addict[2] would admit their drug problem was out of control. [0] My measure is not just a man who can be counted on to do the right thing when nobody is looking, but who will do the right thing when the outcome will/might serve him poorly. [1] A person should not be able to be convicted of a crime if the criminal and the only victim are the same person. [2] Recovering addict is the phrase most frequently used. One acquaintance of mine (who didn't do 12-steps/rehab) corrected me and said he's "not an alcoholic anymore" or a "former alcoholic" because he quit a decade ago and has no desire/temptation to drink (whole household is extremely anti-alcohol; he couldn't hide it if he tried) and feels that claiming to have a problem he doesn't have feels too much like being a "pity whore". He wasn't chemically addicted, either. Can't please everyone, I guess.