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That sounds like a much more humane way to manage addiction, but I'm interested in knowing what more effective ideas are out there for stopping the on-ramp into

That sounds like a much more humane way to manage addiction, but I'm interested in knowing what more effective ideas are out there for stopping the on-ramp into addiction, and what the off-ramp is. Even with better management, it seems to me like addiction still will have great social cost.

chimeracoder 12y ago
> Even with better management, it seems to me like addiction still will have great social cost. This is a common assumption. But empirically, it turns out that the inherent social cost of heroin use (or even heroin dependence) is relatively low, no greater than the social cost of alcohol use/dependence, and arguably a lot less. The only condition is that heroin has to be easily accessible for an affordable price and with a known potency. Diacetylmorphine maintenance programs do exactly this, and have had great success in Switzerland and the UK[0]. People on diacetylmorphine maintenance are able to hold steady jobs and lead otherwise "normal" lives, save for a daily trip to their local clinic. Substitute "bar" or "coffeeshop" for "clinic", and suddenly we're talking about a large chunk of the upper-class workforce, including the tech industry. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin-assisted_treatment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin-assisted_treatment
- facetube 12y ago
  It's also almost certainly cheaper than imprisoning someone, even if the full cost of the program is borne by society at large.
- tmp-20150107 12y ago
  As long as you have the funds, say from a well-paying technology job, you should be able to manage your habit. I discussed this in another thread previously (see the comment history for this throwaway account) and pointed out that I have had both a reasonable career and an unreasonable addiction for twenty years. Of course, the career trajectory probably suffered due to my habit, although that could be laid at the feet of a badly judged brief interlude with crack cocaine rather than heroin ;)

chimeracoder 12y ago

> Even with better management, it seems to me like addiction still will have great social cost. This is a common assumption. But empirically, it turns out that the inherent social cost of heroin use (or even heroin dependence) is relatively low, no greater than the social cost of alcohol use/dependence, and arguably a lot less. The only condition is that heroin has to be easily accessible for an affordable price and with a known potency. Diacetylmorphine maintenance programs do exactly this, and have had great success in Switzerland and the UK[0]. People on diacetylmorphine maintenance are able to hold steady jobs and lead otherwise "normal" lives, save for a daily trip to their local clinic. Substitute "bar" or "coffeeshop" for "clinic", and suddenly we're talking about a large chunk of the upper-class workforce, including the tech industry. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin-assisted_treatment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin-assisted_treatment

facetube 12y ago
It's also almost certainly cheaper than imprisoning someone, even if the full cost of the program is borne by society at large.
tmp-20150107 12y ago
As long as you have the funds, say from a well-paying technology job, you should be able to manage your habit. I discussed this in another thread previously (see the comment history for this throwaway account) and pointed out that I have had both a reasonable career and an unreasonable addiction for twenty years. Of course, the career trajectory probably suffered due to my habit, although that could be laid at the feet of a badly judged brief interlude with crack cocaine rather than heroin ;)