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Comment by bjo590 | Hacker News Reader

> I would rather someone be addicted to pharmaceutical grade opioids than street heroin laced with fentanyl and other junk.

The two addictions are more or less the same. Someone addicted to street heroin can substitute pharmaceutical grade opioids. Someone addicted to pharmaceutical grade opioids can substitute street heroin. This is largely a class discrepancy, as the higher tolerance a person has the more expensive the pharmaceutical grade opioid use is compared to street heroin.

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I don't believe I commit any crime when I put any substance of my choice into my own body, regardless of what the state says.

Right!?! Legalizing drugs would solve a lot of issues and let people actually address and talk about the real problems which is often mental health, however there are a lot of things like mushrooms and LSD that may cause people to "wake up" and not want to be a slave to the system anymore and I think that is mostly what they fear. People realizing they have more choice and power than they've been led to believe.

If you actually care about the human behind the addiction, pharmaceuticals are vastly less likely to land your child or loved one in a morgue. Addicts recover all the time, if they live long enough.

However, given the choice you would choose the pharmaceutical grade right? You are even asserting it is associated with social class. The Costa Rican doctor is actually making safer drugs available to a broader market. In that light, I think you could interpret the Doctor's actions as moral as he is simply meeting a market demand and is providing the least harmful product to meet that need.

Street oxy is super expensive. Heroin is a lot cheaper. 5-6 times cheaper where I’m at.

Why’s it expensive? Because of the ridiculous war on drugs.

> The two addictions are more or less the same.

Except pharmaceutical grade opiods are less likely to be cut with deadly shit like fentanyl.

If someone expects heroin but is then given heroin mixed with another chemical, they can overdose quite easily, especially with fentanyl and carfentanyl

It's inconsistency of dose that kills opioid addicts, that's one of many reasons why legalization is preferable.

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