Prescribed Heroin?

I saw a program on channel 4 I think it was tonight about how it could be a good idea to prescribe heroin to addicts, thus letting them lead a more normal life and not have to commit crimes to finance their addiction.
This policy has been used in the Netherlands and in Switzerland and has succeeded in cutting the number of drug addicts greatly (I forget the exact number).
This way, the heroin distributed would also be proper, medical heroin, made safely, instead of bought third hand from street dealers. Addicts would be at much less risk from AIDS, as they would be provided with safe syringes.

All this seems to say that it would be a good idea to prescribe heroin to addicts who can't quit, but what are your views?
I don't really know what to think... it seems wrong for the government to go around handing out heroin, but the alternatives are crime and AIDS, then I suppose it's the right thing to do

Based on my own first hand experiences with heroin addicts, I really believe that the illegality of heroin makes things much worse. I think we should just legalize it and let the addicts destroy themselves in peace. The only alternative is to let them destroy themselves and everybody around them, which is the situation illegality creates. Full blown legalization would result in the same benefits that would result from putting government resources into the prescription program.

They already do. Heroin addicts often get prescribed methadone, which is less deadly (i think), but just as addictive.

Oh yeah. A heroin addict does just about anything to get a shot of heroin. Like steal, rob and sell themselves. I am pretty certain those people actually don't even Want to do all those things, but they just can't help themselves.

Thus, just give heroin to every junkie who would otherwise rob. But it would be good to only give it to them, after they tried stopping, with professional help.

Also, I am guessing it is working in the Netherlands, because I heard heroin addicts here are a dying breed.

before they do anything with heroin addicts they need to save the government some trouble and legalize weed. :)

Aren't percocets in the same family as Heroin?

I am kinda on both sides here. I think they should make all drugs rules the same as drinking and the like. Not legalizing it just fills up our prisons with helpless addicts who would rather of gotten it legaly if it were possible. And that is a waste of taxes as stuff.

I dont do any drugs though. I know what drugs will do to me. That is the only thing i dont like about the idea. Who is going to teach all the children about the harmful effects of these drugs when they are legalized?

Take for example, meth. What if things like meth were legalized? That would make them easy to get. Some kid ends up finding some and trys it. and what happens? he gets the biggest high you could ever get. I hear its like, 5 times greater than sex. But it comes at a price. Not only can he become addicted, but meth destroys the part of your brain that releases endorfines. The things that make you happy. He wont be able to be happy again, unless he takes more meth. Nobody told this poor kid about what meth did, if sombody told him he would never be able to feel happy again if he took it, im pretty sure he would have not even gone near the stuff. I know i wouldnt.

But who's job is it going to be to inform all these kids about the drugs? parents? they cant be forced. Schools? they dont do a good job either. I actually paid attention in health class and didnt learn any of this stuff their :p That is the only reason why i wouldnt want it to be legalized. If they could find a way to inform everyone of the risks, then it would be a great idea.

I, for one, never quite understood the logic behind making drugs illegal just because they're bad for you. It would be pretty naive to think that's the case, especially with the tobacco and alcohol industries running the show :D.

sorry i just had to post this
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...ayerHeroin.png
i think it's a good idea because aside from what people do to get heroin what is used to cut it can be toxic

It's interesting how a drug is not a big social problem until it becomes illegal.

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Originally Posted by Lord Toaster

I saw a program on channel 4 I think it was tonight about how it could be a good idea to prescribe heroin to addicts, thus letting them lead a more normal life and not have to commit crimes to finance their addiction.
This policy has been used in the Netherlands and in Switzerland and has succeeded in cutting the number of drug addicts greatly (I forget the exact number).

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Has it? Seems like I'm not really well informed :D
Afaik, there is something for heroin addicts who want to quit, or who are supervised by professional help, and I think that they get their drug (I think it's the same thing for other "hard" drugs as well) prescribed... However, I'm not really up to date, has someone found new information about that?

I, personally, think that prescribing an illegal drug makes it legal in a way. I mean why should a state make rules to break them on its own? Literally, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
On the other hand, for addicts who want to quit it's maybe a good idea to prescribe the drug, reduce the amount continuously and on the same time to supervise the process of quitting (which might be very hard for addicts who need to do it on their own)

it's sort of a dilemma...

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Originally Posted by Universal Mind

It's interesting how a drug is not a big social problem until it becomes illegal.

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In Japan they used to excecute Opium addicts to stop the hysteria.

Aren't heroin addicts able to be rehabilitated?

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Originally Posted by Howie

Aren't heroin addicts able to be rehabilitated?

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The success rate is about 1%. A heroin addict is a pretty hopeless life form. That says a lot about what they are willing to do to get their drug. Most of them would kill a random person on the street for just one more hit if they knew with certainty they could get away with it. That is why I want heroin to be legal so the stuff will cost a small fraction of what it does right now so the addicts will just buy the stuff and mind their own business instead of robbing everybody in sight for it.

EDIT: I was taught that the recovery rate is 1%, but some studies will go as high as 15 to 20%. I think those high estimates are based on people who have been sober for months or a few years. The rate of people making it the rest of their lives without the drug is pretty small, but it might not be 1%. That statistic might have a government propaganda component to it.

I wonder how many people who would have otherwise not taken that first dose would take it if it were legalized.

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Originally Posted by Half/Dreaming

I wonder how many people who would have otherwise not taken that first dose would take it if it were legalized.

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Most of the people I know who got into drugs did it initially because it gave them membership and status in the rebellion culture. They were in the teenage rebellion years and thought they were being so defiant and daring by doing something the government declared war on, and they thought they weren't hurting anybody. If the drugs had been legal, I don't think the drugs would have ever looked so cool and given the users so much status. I remember how cool a lot of my high school friends thought they were because they were into drugs. The focus of what they said about drugs in the beginning was not as much on how fun they were as it was on how much they could brag by saying they were so messed up. The focus was always on how messed up they got, not on how much fun they had while they were messed up. The ones who made the biggest deal out of what they were doing were the ones who ended up the most screwed up. The one who used to act the most disgusted that people didn't want to do drugs because he thought sobriety was extremely dorky ended up dying of a cocaine overdose.

So even though legalization would lead to easier access and less social disgust, I think legalization would take away a whole lot of the attractiveness of drugs for people who are in the age group where the vast majority of users first get into drugs. I think it is a long term solution to fixing the drug problem. I am very much for fighting drugs on the demand side, but a supply side drug war causes a much greater magnitude of problems than it fixes. I don't think teenagers or people period are anywhere near as educated on drugs as they need to be. All people hear is, "Drugs are bad, mmmmkay." What they need to learn is stuff like, "____ % of people who try heroin become addicted to it, and ____ % of heroin addicts never recover from the addiction." That's the approach I think should be used.

My friends were the same way. Always talking about who was more screwed up, and who had the best weed. I found that talk lame and boring. I was always the kid talking about the cool conversations we would have and the cool things we would do, like walk across a 20 feet deep canyon over a fallen tree.

As I have said before, I'm not too sure about the legalization of drugs. It is very hit or miss. It would either be succesful or a complete failure which could do a lot of damage.

My proposition is far less harsh punishments. People treat cocaine like manslaughter, and I'm not even going to get into weed.

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Originally Posted by Universal Mind

The success rate is about 1%. A heroin addict is a pretty hopeless life form. That says a lot about what they are willing to do to get their drug. Most of them would kill a random person on the street for just one more hit if they knew with certainty they could get away with it. That is why I want heroin to be legal so the stuff will cost a small fraction of what it does right now so the addicts will just buy the stuff and mind their own business instead of robbing everybody in sight for it.

EDIT: I was taught that the recovery rate is 1%, but some studies will go as high as 15 to 20%. I think those high estimates are based on people who have been sober for months or a few years. The rate of people making it the rest of their lives without the drug is pretty small, but it might not be 1%. That statistic might have a government propaganda component to it.

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WOW. :shock:
That is scary to me.
I see your logic.
If only people realized how dangerous it was, first. It would seem that not too many people would be trying it, even if it were legal.

I don't know.
I have not seen enough to make my own opinion.
You have seen more than I have.
I know that the two main drugs I do know of that are legal should not be.
Alcohol and nicotine.

[Edit] Oh ya. Universal. Do users pretty much become brain dead? And how long does that take if so.

Moral of this story...............Don't do Heroin

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Originally Posted by Howie

Universal. Do users pretty much become brain dead? And how long does that take if so.

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I haven't seen anybody permanently brain dead because of long term use, but I have seen them brain dead from being on heroin at that moment. They can be the smoothest talking and sharpest thinking people in the world when they are sober because they are fighting for their lives to con people out of money so they can get more heroin. I have never met a junkie older than 45. They don't live that long. So I'm not sure what heroin would do to people who do it every day from their teens or twenties to their fifties and beyond. Pretty much all of them either overdose or just fall over dead before they get too far into their forties. One of my friends who is hopelessly addicted to dilaudid, a synthetic form of heroin, said one time that 30 year old heroin addicts are senior citizens. He was right.

That sucks.
I not too long ago read a very disturbing story about methamphetamines and youth.

It seems as time goes by the more hardcore the drugs become.


Barbiturates, speed, cocaine, obiets, hallucinogens, marijuana, acid heroin pills, and clonazepam :( blah blah blah.
So many to choose from.
.
.
.
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Originally Posted by Howie

I not too long ago read a very disturbing story about methamphetamines and youth.

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Meth, out of most of the methamphetamines, is probably one of the scariest drugs out there. After a long road of ecstasy use, my best friend started smoking meth and it completely changed him. This was over the summer of grade 9, too... a horrible drug acting on too young a victim.

Anyways, everytime I saw him that summer he was a major crackhead, didn't like the things we used to do or talk about. He just talked about how many days he'd been staying up for, or how his vision was now constantly blocked by smoke, or how fucked up the other night was... I really didn't like him.

Then school came along and he just quit. Cold turkey. He returned to the same friend I had, and we've gotten along great since then. He's probably only done it twice since then and he said he hates it now.

As for the prescribed heroin thing, I really think it's better than having them rob and all that nasty stuff that comes along with inheriting money for a drug. I've seen quite a few addicts and most of them look too far gone to be saved.

Well, we kind of do prescribe heroin. Methadone is basically heroin in pill form, but is a lot less deadly.

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Originally Posted by CoLd BlooDed

Meth, out of most of the methamphetamines, is probably one of the scariest drugs out there. After a long road of ecstasy use, my best friend started smoking meth and it completely changed him. This was over the summer of grade 9, too... a horrible drug acting on too young a victim.

Anyways, everytime I saw him that summer he was a major crackhead, didn't like the things we used to do or talk about. He just talked about how many days he'd been staying up for, or how his vision was now constantly blocked by smoke, or how fucked up the other night was... I really didn't like him.

Then school came along and he just quit. Cold turkey. He returned to the same friend I had, and we've gotten along great since then. He's probably only done it twice since then and he said he hates it now.

As for the prescribed heroin thing, I really think it's better than having them rob and all that nasty stuff that comes along with inheriting money for a drug. I've seen quite a few addicts and most of them look too far gone to be saved.

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lol. When I read it, I though he quit School cold turkey. But good thing he quit. From a few documentaries, I have the impressing Meth is the most fucked up drug ever.

Yeah, I guess I should've worded that better. :p

And yeah, some of the stories he used to tell me were fucked up. When he was doing it he hung out with some fucked up kids, and when they were cracked out they'd sit in a room and see how deep they could cut themselves. They weren't emo at the least, they just wanted to see how much blood there would be.

"Cutting to the bone," he said.

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Originally Posted by CoLd BlooDed

Yeah, I guess I should've worded that better. :p

And yeah, some of the stories he used to tell me were fucked up. When he was doing it he hung out with some fucked up kids, and when they were cracked out they'd sit in a room and see how deep they could cut themselves. They weren't emo at the least, they just wanted to see how much blood there would be.

"Cutting to the bone," he said.

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That's some fucked up shit right there... : )