Why is heroin so destructive?

[janef001]

I have a friend in the UK who I was chatting to after connecting on LinkedIn. She told me that one of the popular middle class girls ended up dying on the streets after overdosing on heroin.

I don't like saying it but she doesn't fit the typical stereotype of a heroin user. Her parents were educated at Oxford and while not very rich, they were pretty well off. Apparently, she went over to the States for work, got hooked on opioids, and moved to cheaper heroin. The stealing and lying eventually led her to burning bridges with her family and friends.

I feel sad that she ended like that but for some reason I've heard that strong opioids are the quickest way to destitution. I know far more people who've become addicted from prescription stuff (in the UK less so but in America with benzos and opioids and going downhill quickly) compared to alcohol. This girl did party excessively beforehand but I don't think anyone would have called her an addict at the time.

It is whether the persons role model / parental figures manage to convey (and the messages are taken on board) the right mix between risk taking and reward and the importances of respecting your own body to the extent you have a deep seated drive to prioritise a basic level of your own health and basic bodily safety from a young age, even when you are at that stage in life when you (like many others) literally think you are invincible and nothing will get to you (whatever logic says to the contrary

For all their faults my parents managed this well. Both children of the '60s, they had seen friends destroyed by drugs, well them and Zammo.

As PPs have said I’m fairly sure heroin isn’t awful for you, physically. It doesn’t damage you as much as alcohol does. However it is such an addictive drug it’s not that compatible with normal life and it requires a huge amount of money to service. More often than not that is from illegal means and the entire lifestyle is what will do you the harm.

There are functional Heroin addicts ;

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Clapton

Maybe the most famous one.

I had morphine in a peg in my stomach after an emcs where I nearly died in HDU, exh & my mum both said I would open my eyes, say hello, then go back to sleep & repeat the same thing 10 minutes later, I can't recall anything for about 48 hours. The withdrawal afterwards was awful, I couldn't stop scratching & felt hungover for about a week after.

Heroin is really good at taking away physical and emotional pain. I had diamorphine once and it was amazing. So it stands to reason that people in pain are going to want to keep using and it ultimately impact them.

There are however people who use it recreationally. My uncle was one of those people who used it in the sixties and then occasionally afterwards. There are still people around who are prescribed diamorphine who used heroin years ago and are living stable lives. It can also be very context dependent- think of all those US soldiers who used in Vietnam but never touched it once they returned home after the war

Knowing the bad effects, why would someone 'just try it once' or whatever reason they have for trying it.

I think addiction or the fact you have an addictive personality or tendencies is the real issue. Because that causes people to fixate on something, be it alcohol or anything else. If you aren't addictive in nature, mind if these things are going to bother you are they?

Womaninatightspot:
"Are you easily addicted to other things nicotine/ caffeine/ alcohol/other drugs?"

Explains what I was trying to say I'm my last post. You can be addictive addicted to anything to crisps coffee chocolate Counselling loads of different things unless you address that and the core issues it's going to cause you problems.

But if you don't have an addictive personality will you control those issues or your foundations are good then you probably won't become addicted to anything will you?

Many posters may have tried a couple of drugs when younger, say at Uni. But some find a joint/hash/weed fuels their anxiety. Others try it a few times, and then move on. No addiction. Why does one person and not the other?

Heroin certainly seems to destroy lives quicker than alcohol does, but once someone is addicted it is far more dangerous to withdraw from alcohol than heroin.

@Oblomov22 there is a process to becoming an addict. I've done so many drugs and have an addictive personality but I never wanted to be a drug addict. You have to go against your own judgement time and time again - even for a shopping addiction. You know you don't need whatever it is you need, you know you can't really afford it/have no room for it/should be doing something else rather than this right now and time and time again you do it anyway. Then you start bargaining with yourself that you'll only do it on weekends, then a Thursday is almost the weekend, then someone upsets you on a Tuesday. Then you see what's happening and go back to weekends only and the process starts again until you're doing it on a Monday no fucks given because it feels good and you can't cope with the judgy looks from people who think they're better than you. They become the problem not your addiction.

The question of whether heroin and other, similar drugs should be legalised is an interesting one.
The main arguement appears to be made in support of Class A drug addicts, the minority, and not to favour the protection and welfare of everyone else, the majority.
For that reason I support the prohibition on the use of Class A drugs, unless in a legal medical context.

I’ve had morphine for medical reasons which I understand is essentially heroin. I think the psychologically addictive part is the feeling of peace, like everything is right with the world. It probably means the person won’t hit a “what have I done with my life” rock bottom in the same way. Personally I didn’t experience any addiction issues from it but I can see from why people would if there were things about their life that made getting that ‘peace’ feeling naturally very difficult.

Also mental health issues, especially those caused by trauma, aren’t very well treated in U.K. so that ‘peace feeling’ may be sought because of child abuse flash backs, self worth issues, hearing voices etc. Mental health and terrible family secrets aren’t the preserve of the working class, just look at hollywood.

Not all class A drug users are addicts. Cocaine is used my large numbers of the population on a recreational basis.

The argument for legalisation is that the current classification makes no sense. Alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some class A drugs, ecstasy, for example. But they are legal.

if you legalise drugs you can regulate them, know exactly what is in them and how much/strong- just like alcohol. You regulate the industries that create them so prevent the people trafficking and slavery and county lines. You can tax them so create revenue for addiction services.

So much organised crime makes its money from the illegality of drugs. Take that away and you remove some of their income.

All the research shows that criminalising drugs, whether class A or alcohol doesn’t stop people using it.

if we are basing the legality on harm to our society and individuals we should make alcohol and tobacco illegal.

Doctors used to be able to prescribe heroin in the 1950s. Back then the "drugs squad" of the Metropolitan Police was 2 officers whose main job was to check doctors weren't prescribing to themselves (which was the biggest problem).

Then the US barged in and told us that we had to do it their way, and we are where we are.

It's axiomatic that if you support the criminalisation of drugs, you are supporting the crime. Or to put it another way, the biggest supporters of our current drug laws are drug dealers. For whom a few million to a political party to keep the status quo is peanuts.

This my DGF was a Country GP after the war, he had a few heroin addicts on the books. I understand they were mostly ex- military personal or sailors had become addicted abroad.