Make Heroin Legal

gandalf

sailorboy I really sorry to hear about your brother but you do not have a right hear to fire personal abuse at another user. If you cannot make your point without resorting to personal abuse then I would rather if you didn't post here either.

sailorboy banned for a week as well.

Stabshauptmann

Heroin is really easy to od on.
It is THE most addictive drug
If it was free and pure ppl would try it, get hooked really fast and ruin their lives. Its hard enough to lead productive lives when smokin weed regularly how would we function as a society if large numbers of ppl were on H

ionapaul

Mordeth wrote:

...I don't think that just because it's legally available more people will try it. Whoever wants to try heroin is going to try heroin, whatever it's legal standing. People who don't want to try heroin, well they're not going to be injected with it against their will.

I disagree - while flawed, the prohibition on heroin in legal and social terms MUST be having an adverse affect on the number of users. In particular, I beleive potential users in the middle-class are warned off as a result of the 'war of drugs'.

I would feel very strongly against any 'positive' subsidisation of drug addicts - helping them to get high, etc...even if it is cheaper for all in the long run. If we want to discuss solely the cost, it might be cheaper to execute every last junkie in Ireland, but that is rarely suggested!

Boggle

I disagree - while flawed, the prohibition on heroin in legal and social terms MUST be having an adverse affect on the number of users. In particular, I beleive potential users in the middle-class are warned off as a result of the 'war of drugs'.

I agree. At leas at the moment you aren't likely to be bombarded with smack ads nor could you just decide, on the basis of a bad day, that you'r go on a heroin 'bender'.
If you reckon that thise who wouldn't normally use it will never try it thencompare it to smokers and no-smokers... How many non-smokers do you know that haven't tried it just once??

seedot

Heroin is easy to od on because strength is variable - because it is unregulated.

It is not as addictive as cigarettes, you do not get addicted first time you use it and pure heroin has been used for long periods of time without adverse health affects.

If it was distributed in the same way as other, legal, recreational / medical substances than how would we be subsidising anybody who chose to use it?

In the late 19th C large numbers of people used morphine, heroin and laudanum with v. low impact on society. Being classed as a junkie scum, being imprisoned, having abscesses and bad skin and rotten teeth from bad gear, being unemployable - these all have a larger effect on someone imho than any substance.
Yes I've seen smackheads in charge of children and got really annoyed, yes use is generally symptomatic of other issues (it is a painkiller) but really, someone sitting in their flat gouging is their business. Boring but doesn't hurt me.

sovtek

the_syco wrote:

A load of junkies would come to here, for the free trip. Look at how many people goto Amsterdam for legal weed, and you must pay for that there.

Also, Methodone may substitute one addiction for another, but does it habve the same effect, physically? Black veins, etc? Also, does it allow the user to continue on with a "normal" life, or do they still have to daily mug people for money to buy the stuff?

Prescribing heroin keeps them at a level dose and if it was legal the price would be cheaper.
I'll try to find a link but there was a study done in the UK where a doctor gave prescribed amounts to junkies and they were able to carry on normal lives whilst doing heroin.
I actually know someone that does herion on a regular basis and still manages a normal life.
If the heroin was pure they wouldn't be suffering most of the health defects either.
What causes most of the health problem is the crap it's cut with.
In Thailand there are tribes that actually center their cultural rituals around it and get their wages paid in it.
If Western Europeans' drug of choice was heroin instead of alcohol...it most likely would be legal today.

Evil Phil

Boggle wrote:

(it is mentally addictive for some people however - as is beer)

Actually alcohol is physically addictive and has been classed as dangerous as cocaine or heroin by the World Health Organisation.

Roisin Dubh

No Magpie! It can be fatal even in uncontaminated form. No!

rubadub

Necromancer wrote:

Heroin is really easy to od on.
It is THE most addictive drug

where did you hear that? Every toxicology textbook I have read has always stated nictoine as the most addictive substance known.

Heroin was legal once and now is illegal, many view suggestions to relegalise it as ludicrous. Maybe in a few generations time people will view nictoine in the same way. Young people saying "my granda says that in his day people were actually allowed to go outside during work hours to abuse that drug nictoine, yeah that same illegal drug you see the scumbags in the gutter smoking"

magpie

No Magpie! It can be fatal even in uncontaminated form. No!

I'm not advocating encouraging its use, just that those who choose to use it be allowed to avail of a supply of pure heroin that they will not have to commit petty crime to pay for and that its distribution be taken out of the hands of criminals.

Some people will always take heroin anyway, why not make their lives less miserable by allowing them to do so in a more safe and controlled manner?

bounty

maybe a large cheap prison type complex, where junkies and alcos can be seperated from the normal people, is the answer

*me*

bounty wrote:

maybe a large cheap prison type complex, where junkies and alcos can be seperated from the normal people, is the answer

I find the term "normal people" rather unfair and surely your suggestion is a precursor to building barriers and promoting inequalities in a world where many people fight against such inequalities on a daily basis- Many people may believe they are not of the so called norm and choose to be so!

magpie

maybe a large cheap prison type complex, where junkies and alcos can be seperated from the normal people, is the answer

Limerick?

Bottle_of_Smoke

I don't think so. Don't like this term but "normal" people would have much easier access, therefore much more of society will get addicted. Heroin's usually taken as an escape from life by down and out people with nothing to look forward to, they're the people I mean who aren't classed as normal/

bounty

i dont think the idea of equality is applicable to junkies, face it: they're not normal

make the heroin free in these compounds, so all the junkies are moved to these areas, out of sight

and dont let them out until they voluntarily stop talking drugs

Boggle

Actually alcohol is physically addictive and has been classed as dangerous as cocaine or heroin by the World Health Organisation.

yeah threw in beer as an afterthought - what I meant to say was that hash is a much milder drug than alcohol as it is not physically addictive as beer is. I was only recognising the fact that there is still a % of people who could get a mental addiction to it so its not 100% harmless. Apologies .

Gurgle

magpie wrote:

Remove the crime associated with Heroin by making it legal and freely distributed in a pure form through GPs.

Nice concept but not practical in the real world.

The herion addicts would still be heroin addicts but there would be way more of them because they'd live longer and have no incentive to quit. I find it hard to believe that any significant proportion of them would be productive contributors to society.

We don't have criminals because of heroin, we have criminals because some people are just scum. Fair enough, it would cut down on junkies holding up petrol stations or mugging tourists but there's plenty of non heroin addicts to keep those fine traditions going.

If heroin was legal and cheap, the scum currently making their profits on rat poison would move on to some other enterprise too.

Better to legalize cannabis and keep the heroin addicts too stoned to shoot up.

SackvilleII

I think the possession of any small amount of drug should be decriminalised.
Anyone who steals or deals to support a habit should be referred for rehab. Supply on the other hand , particularly by a non-addict, should be dealt with severely IMO!