Reply to: Alcohol more harmful than Heroin

[minestrone]

Naturally enough, the Septics have banned its use even in hospitals.

Was having a conversation with the missus about picking out malpracticing doctors by statistically reviewing their prescribing data. The conversation, as it always does on this subject, turned to Shipman who was allowed to get the same amount of Diamorphine hospitals were buying in over the course of many years, she has used it once in 16 years as a doctor.

[kandr]

I believe also that most of the GIs who came back from Vietnam with a heroin problem kicked it without help once they no longer had the stress of combat to deal with.

However, even if a drug is medically harmless that does not make it harmless for an individual or for society. Drugs can be a means of escape from problems and there is a danger in that because stress is not entirely a pointless thing, it is nature's way of telling us when we have problems and the ideal is to solve those problems. Continually resorting to the quick fix of drugs means that we make no progress.

Preach it brother!

[xoggoth]

I believe also that most of the GIs who came back from Vietnam with a heroin problem kicked it without help once they no longer had the stress of combat to deal with.

However, even if a drug is medically harmless that does not make it harmless for an individual or for society. Drugs can be a means of escape from problems and there is a danger in that because stress is not entirely a pointless thing, it is nature's way of telling us when we have problems and the ideal is to solve those problems. Continually resorting to the quick fix of drugs means that we make no progress.

[Boudica]

Has anyone seen Kristian F ? That scared the jesus out of me as a teenager, I've never even taken an eccy fearing I would be the one who died the first time they tried it!


Geoffery Robertson did a show a few years ago about the best drug for your surgeon to be on, heroin, alcohol or barbs, he concluded heroin. I think he said the main dangers were the inconsistency of dose, what people did to get the drug and not eating properly as caused by lack of money. So if you had a consistent and clean and affordable supply the damage done to the body over a period of time is less.

I have a couple of friends who have used for ten year periods and stopped without much damage, middle class professionals and all that....

[SizeZero]

Heroin is "dangerous" only because it's very addictive and you can overdose on it much easier than Alcohol, but it has no long term effects like Alcohol does, it doesn't ruin your liver.

However, one side effect you missed is that it 'relaxes' you to the point where you stop breathing - if it manages to do that, the side effects are indeed negligible.

[sasguru]

Diamorphine is addictive and you do get withdrawls.

Its OK, BB simply takes the first random firings of his few neurons as being the gospel truth and goes from there.
Evidence and facts don't come into it.

[kandr]

Diamorphine is addictive and you do get withdrawls.

Was it like that trainspotting scene when you were coming off it?

[minestrone]

That's why heroine (Diamorphine) is used in hospitals as a painkiller, rather than alcohol. Has very little harmful effects other than constipation and obviously being drowsy and generally you can't give a sh*t about anything. In fact when it's used for pain relief the patients don't even get addicted, there's no "cold turkey" when they come off it.

Diamorphine is addictive and you do get withdrawls.

[d000hg]

chav's truffles

Is that a euphemism?

[BlasterBates]

Ive only seen a few interviews, so perhaps you are right, nothing like a bottle of JD for the nerves.

Of course in most of those recorded interviews he would have been full of "smack".

[kandr]

So what's your chosen drug?

Sniffing Petrol

[Mich the Tester]

BBC News - Alcohol 'more harmful than heroin' says Prof David Nutt

Thoughts?

So what's your chosen drug?

[kandr]

I'm not sure a 70 year old who can still play guitar, give a great rock concert, write songs and write a biography (admittedly with the help of a ghost writer) is particularly "harmed".

But yes he does sound bad sometimes. I remember a longtime ago Keith Richards being held up as the example as what drugs do to you, but he still kept going. I put it down to the fact that he drinks a bottle of Jack Daniels before his interviews and then he sounds slurred, and you assume he's always like that. Saw him in that film when he was organising Chuck Berry's 60th birthday concert, he was much sharper than he appears in the interviews.

Ive only seen a few interviews, so perhaps you are right, nothing like a bottle of JD for the nerves.

[kandr]

As opposed to CUK you mean?

FTFY

[shaunbhoy]

If a far larger percentage of the population used LSD, skunk cannabis or ectasy our hospitals would be full of schizophrenics and depressives

As opposed to the House of Commons you mean?