It’s a heck of a drug -
Famous People Who Overdosed on Heroin
That’s one long list.
I’m pretty sure someone here once posted about having to score heroin for Burroughs when he was on a book tour, and that dropping his name made sure they got “the good stuff” (think Vincent Vega.)
Assuming a reliable supply and clean needles, will heroin actually kill you?
Read this, evaluate your position.
And who knows? You might learn to capitalize letters while you’re at it.
If you overdose on it, sure. Long term heroin users also tend to have problems with nutrition (both not eating consistently and because of opioid effects on bowel function) and ultimately compromised immune function due to opioid effects on the immune system (decreased lymphocyte capacity and monocyte-macrophage DC progenitor cells resulting in reduced innate and adaptive immunity).
Stranger
A friend of mine was fighting the monkey for 15 years, and held down a pretty well paying IT job for a major consulting firm for virtually all of that time. I’d known about his using for maybe five years or so, but had plenty of other hobbies and interests, and thanks to the decent living he was making, he never sunk to the depths of depravity that you think about when you think about the stereotypical street junkie, so I figured he had it under some semblance of control.
I mean, his wife left him, and those of us in his circle of friends who have kids have gradually cut off most contact to one degree or another as we realized what was going on, but he didn’t create any more chaos in his life than, say, your garden variety high functioning alcoholic.
Five weeks ago, he got laid off and was cut a fat severance check. He was dead three days after that due to what we think was an accidental carfentanil OD.
If it weren’t for the batches of cut shit that have been floating around here the last couple of years, he’d definitely be alive today, and would probably continue to stumble through life putting whatever percentage of his income a regular person would put into a 401k up his arm for the foreseeable future.
Well, heroin will do that to you sometimes!! 
Being a recreational heroin user shouldn’t be that expensive. In theory. A gram is like $100 and maybe 50%+ purity, a dose even for someone with tolerance is 100mg or less of pure so that is $20 a dose at most (probably a fraction of that). If you do it a few times a week it isn’t like you’d be bankrupt and having to commit crimes to pay for drugs.
I don’t know many heroin addicts though, so I have no idea how many are functional. I know several functional alcoholics, I’d assume there are a lot of functional opiate addicts too.
It is interesting to consider how a middle class person would be supplied with the drug over a long period of time. You’d think the police would pick up their connection at some point and then what? Harry homeowner/heroin junkie goes scrambling for a new connection. How would that work? Or do even middle class “functional” junkies usually have multiple sources established?
i’d wager that most people who use heroin (at least in part) in order to stave off withdrawal sickness would have more than one option as to where to get it. Withdrawals are mighty good motivators. IMHO
When a random (not large scale) dealer gets picked up, they’re likely back out on the streets within hours. If they’re not, someone else will quickly fill in the gaps. Back when I was in college and buying various substances (never heroin), if someone got busted, someone else that bought from that guy usually knew where he got his stuff from and was willing to step up. I’d imagine this is no different. So James the Office Manager buys his stuff from Billy the line cook. Billy moves about $200 a day. One day Billy gets picked up, there’s only going to be a day or two gap before one of the people that hangs out with Billy on a regular basis goes to Billy’s supplier and starts dealing on his own.
The only time there was ever a real shortage was when a ‘regional’ bust happened. But being in college it was just a matter of asking around.
And this is just for people that keep it to themselves, there’s going to be plenty of high functioning addicts/recreational users that know other users and if their supply dries up, they can talk to someone else and get set up with that person’s dealer.
Yeah, if you’re using you’re drug of choice 2 or 3 times a year, and your dealer disappears, that might be the end of it, but if it’s once or twice a day thing, you’ll figure it out, there’s a whole world out there. As someone else said, just go find some cooks. While I’ve never heard that about heroin, I’ve always said if you want some blow, talk to people that work at a restaurant, someone in the kitchen has some coke.
Also, don’t forget that Vicodin, Tylenol 3, Percocets are all the same drug*. Plenty of people that lose their heroin supply will look for pain killers either on the street or from their doctor, so there’s that as well.
I’m guessing you were never in the drug scene, as I said, it’s a whole world, you learn to spot who you’re looking for or how to drop certain keywords and see who’s ears perk up. All the 420 type buzzwords for weed, they’re around for everything, so you can be at a bar and know how to make a joke or a comment in passing that most people won’t think anything of but one person will say ‘hey, if you’re looking for some [whatever drug], I can get it for you’.
Another thing to keep in mind is that with about 200 heroin deaths (that’s deaths, not users, just people that died) per state in 2015, you have to remember, there’s dealers around, so someone that does heroin, is going to find another supplier. Unless they’re super covert, ‘meet me in the alley on 10th st at 4am’, they likely know other people that either deal or use.
*Yes, I know, not exactly the same thing, but it’s same idea.
Heroin is extremely easy to find and purchase. Even in smaller towns it is becoming more accessible. The methadone clinics are popular spots for making hook ups. Some of the clinics give out doses of 3 days and 2 days. Some of the users will gamble on the 3 day dose and get loaded that day and still test clean on the third day.
Very interesting article about a writer who led a normal life (for a while) as a heroin addict.
Addiction is definitely a complex disease, that’s for sure. If a person has the resources to have stable housing and a reasonably healthy diet, they can often hide it to varying degrees for a very long time.
I can’t say I’ve personally known any heroin addicts, or even anyone who’s done it, although I probably do or have and didn’t know it. I’ve definitely known people who had an opportunity to try it, and refused, mainly because they weren’t desperate enough for a high to have a needle stuck in them or to spend the next who knows how long puking their guts out, regardless of the route of administration.
One of my pharmacy school classmates died about 10 years ago from OD’ing on stolen fentanyl patches, and looking back, I suspect he became a pharmacist so he could have easier access to drugs. :eek: This is based on certain comments he made over the years, combined with the way he died. (And believe me, if you want drugs, there are definitely easier ways to obtain them. :dubious: ) I’ve known a few other colleagues who faced varying levels of censure due to substance abuse, usually because they were caught stealing drugs.
I also seem to be the only person out there who thinks that some people are deliberately starting to use drugs because they think heroin addiction is cool. :smack: The media definitely needs to stop glamorizing it IMNSHO.
Here’s a direct link to that book, which I have read. It was quite interesting.
The old Sears and Wards catalogues had syringes and needles available for order, and they weren’t being used for insulin because that hadn’t been discovered yet. Heroin was also used in cough syrup and teething remedies.
Carfentanil is a veterinary sedative that is something like 100 times more potent than fentanyl, and is dosed in microgram amounts in large animals only. A colleague on another website said that she interned at one of several pharmacies (she said the exact number varies but could be counted on one hand) in the U.S. that is licensed to sell it, and the amount of paperwork required to obtain it is enormous, as are the security measures for its storage. I had only previously heard of it over 20 years ago when I was in school; it, and several other veterinary drugs, were mentioned in our law class just so we would know they existed.
In many states syringes are available OTC. You can just walk into Walgreens and ask for them. The pharmacist can, of course decline to sell them to you, but they are available. I’ve purchased them before, but I did bring in my script for an injectable med that I just didn’t have any syringes for. Probably helps that I don’t look like a junky. Also, as a side note, in many states insulin is also available without a script.
The (relatively) old human insulins are OTC, and the old animal-sourced insulins were too. Syringe availability varies widely; I did mention the old catalog sales because those were intended for self-administration of narcotics.
In some states, insulin syringes require a prescription, but larger syringes and larger-bore needles do not. You can buy the latter at the Theisen’s farm supply store a couple miles from my house, in addition to certain antibiotics and anthelminthics intended for use in livestock.
No, heroin addicts are incapable of leading normal lives; there is nothing normal about a pathological substance abuse addiction and undoubtedly lying to your friends and family to cover up it, nothing normal about spending money that could have been used for good on an illegal high, and nothing normal about snorting that shit up your nose a couple times a week.
They give the appearance of leading the normal lives, but it a thin veneer hiding the real thing, a facade. Just look at their dilated pupils.
Just. Say. No.
Glad we got that out of the way, question answered, close the thread.
I believe in moral absolutism, not relativism. We should not try to rationalize immoral and illegal behavior, such as the use of heroin. It’s not normal, it’ll put you on the path to violent mood swings and even murderous desires. We’ve seen people murdered, particularly in Chicago, over disagreements between heroin deals.
This is not behavior to be scrubbed under the rug. They don’t lead normal lives.