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Comment by mnm1 | Hacker News Reader

White trash drugs? Benzodiazepines, of which kolonopin is one are used by over 15 million people in the US and over 10 in the UK. It's one of the most widely used, widely prescribed categories of drugs and kolonopin one of the top prescribed in the category. And opiates? Who uses opiates who isn't addicted to them? You think being rich gives you a pass on addiction, and chronic pain?

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Woah woah woah. Hold on. I'm most certainly not saying that being well-to-do somehow makes me (or workers) better. I'm simply saying that __in the environments I worked in__ (responding to the post), certain drugs were definitely looked down upon when used recreationally. I called it "white-trash" as an example. Taking KPins because you actually have a prescription for something is __not__ what I was talking about. Doing whippets at parties or smoking crack was.

And, I mean, let's be real here, do you know any programmers who casually do heroin? I don't, and frankly, even though I sympathize heavily with people who suffer from addiction, I wouldn't personally associate with a person who does heroin in their free time.

this is exactly why it took me so long to get help for my heroin problem. i'm a senior software engineer, but if i admitted to my addiction at work, the stigma and ostracism from people like you would be awful. fortunately i am now in a methadone program, due to a manager much more open minded than this...

Rare, but:

> Who uses opiates who isn't addicted to them? You think being rich gives you a pass on addiction, and chronic pain?

There's a difference between dependency and addiction. The former is physical, the latter (mostly) psychological. The former is much easier to treat.

That being said, it's almost impossible to not be both be dependent on and addicted to opiates if you take them for chronic pain over longer time.

> Who uses opiates who isn't addicted to them? Regularly? likely no one but there are a ton of poeple who use recreationally that aren't addicted.

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