Comment by girvo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by girvo | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Heroin is... Interesting. I was an addict for 6 years. I ran two businesses (one successfully), held down excellent jobs for amazing agencies, built cool stuff, had numerous relationships that were both good and bad.

Most of heroin's issues arise because of its illegality, coupled with its price. I was spending $400 a day. It's nearly impossible to keep afloat with that sort of outgoing expense. Heroin also makes me grumpier than I typically am, and I wouldn't wish the withdrawals on my worst enemy.

But on the other hand, it has few negative physical effects in the long term, which I find amazingly curious. I've been clean for three years now, and if I didn't tell you you'd never know what I'd done. That's odd, in my opinion, considering its reputation. If I'd drunk the equivalent amount of alcohol every day for six years, I'd doubt that would be the case.

Like any drug, being illegal distorts the market and causes issues that wouldn't exist with it legal, however I would never want to see it legal the same way alcohol is. It's simply dangerous above and beyond things like weed. I'm truly not sure how i feel about it, to be honest. I just know that I would never use it again, regardless of its legal status.

Thanks for sharing this. If you don't mind me asking, how did you find the experience of getting rid of that habit? What got you to finally try and defeat it?

Getting off it was difficult. I couldn't have done it without the amazing support of my government, despite it's rather draconian drug laws. I've been clean for three years now. The impetus for getting off of it were the cost (I was using 1.5 grams per day), the illegality (I didn't want to risk my future any more).

But, the key reason? I didn't want to take it any more. A well known fact among addict circles, is that there will come a time when you're done taking it. The problem is, unless you were lucky to live in a country like mine, doing so without the support of society when it is so stigmatized is supremely difficult. It's an interesting problem.

I see... at first I thought you were complimenting America's drug rehab programs and then I read "country like mine" and quickly realized my error.

Canada?

This is interesting, as it turns my viewpoint on its head. I firmly believed heroin addicts were all zombies. You are arguing they are quite completely saveable.

It changes my view on whether it is useful to help somebody. Do you have any references for this?

I've shared my experiences a number of times, and you'd be amazed how many other programmers have contacted me to express their situation. "Functional" addicts are far more numerous than common knowledge would have you believe, but the stigma is so great that it's something that remains rather impossible to find out.

Heres an interesting fact. About 23% of people who use heroin (not opiates in general, heroin specifically) become addicts[0]. I've always found that rather interesting, and matches up perfectly with my anecdotal experience. I'm one of the 23% unfortunately.

Edit: As I said in a comment above, no-one wants to remain on heroin forever. You truly will want to stop at some point, even if it causes no issues in your life (good luck with that!) -- every addict I've known has hit that point eventually. I did. I was just lucky my government and society supported me in getting clean. Others in other countries aren't so lucky, and I think that's a shame.

[0] http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/heroin

Your 23% statistic is very revealing; in recent years there's been a lot of research into the underlying neurobiology of addiction. Turns out that addicts are often quite predisposed to getting addicted, either through genetics (such as variants in the components of neurotransmitter systems) or their early environment. And through long-term changes in the brain from substance abuse - as an example, over-consuming alcohol over time can damage the frontal cortex, impairing decision-making, including deciding to stop drinking, so you end up with this feedback loop of sorts.

I find it very unfortunate that society hasn't caught up with this way of thinking and mostly still regards addiction as a moral vice, rather than a lifelong illness.

I hold the suspicion that if you check up on most addicts of any kind, you will find someone that had social issues before touching drugs.

Possibly. But for me 'social issues' is a bit too vague for comfort.

Very normal, in itself healthy social interaction could bring one to alcoholism for example, and nobody, including the addict, will be aware of the problem for a long time.

I believe a more interesting claim would be to say 'social issues involving a significant other'. It's easy to hide problems of various kinds from your friends; it's much harder to do so with a partner, especially living together.

I'm not saying having such a partner prevents addiction, but I do think that it makes it harder to maintain without ramifications. I suspect a significant part of addicts either lack in a significant other, or have one who suffers from 'compatible' issues.

Personally I've found that partners and flatmates (family or otherwise) are a primary reason for not spiraling into bad habits (or addictions). With friends it's too easy to 'manage' yourself.

The Rat Park experiment provides a lot of insight here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park

If you prefer the graphic novel:

http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comics_en/rat-park/

I think you might be surprised by the number of functional heroin "addicts" there are. There are a lot of people holding down "good" jobs while using.

I don't feel great about posting non-throway, but hey.

My anecdata (10 > N < 20) are that most opiate users generally work out OK (<10% problem rate). Like most habits though, it's not a great thing to be stuck with. Worse than being a smoker although the smart ones will be quick to point out it's biologically better.

It's a thing you can actually grow out of, too. The people who don't usually have other problems.

Yeah, I actually know of at least one doctor who was on heroin (while practicing). Started with an opiate (painkiller) addiction and then led to heroin. Actually, it's pretty common for people who've been prescribed painkillers to start using heroin once they can no longer get their painkiller prescriptions filled/represcribed.

Given that Herion is pretty much distilled opium, that's not really a surprise.

Reminds of an anecdote from when a needle room was opened in Oslo, Norway. Sure, they expected may homeless and such. But what they also got was people in suits driving fancy cars, that stopped by to do a dosage before heading to so big wig office or party.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com