[misterjangles]

Not sure I agree about heroin being gentle and harmless, but I do think that making any drug illegal immediately creates a black market, which in turn leads to violence and powerful, wealthy crime organizations.

I'm not sure where the line should be. I'd like to say make all drugs legal, but as soon as the first high school kid is killed in a drug-related car accident we will see an army of furious parent organizations screaming about making stricter laws.

[enkephalin]

it isn't a matter of opinion. heroin is in no way a harmless drug. it's highly addictive and easily lethal if taken in to high a dose or combined with other drugs, like e.g. alcohol, or benzodiazepines.

EDIT: the same goes for most other opiates/opioids.

[stplsd]

> highly addictive

hacker news is highly addictive, should we ban it too?

> and easily lethal if taken in to high a dose or combined with other drugs

Just use common sense. Water is lethal taken in to high a dose [1]. Almost every substance is lethal if taken to much for body to handle. And mixing heroin with benzos is just plain stupid. Of course if heroin would be legal, it could be printed with warnings, etc. And people take heroin (or other opioids) with benzos for two main reasons:

a) Unknowingly take a mix then dealers mix diluted opioids with benzos for better effect and to hide that their shit is weak

b) Users mix themselves then opioid is weak or doesn't produce enough high (methadone, etc)

If users should have cheap source of medical grade heroin no one would use them with benzos. So legal heroin have only benefits. Of course some people are plain stupid (for example taking too much paracetamol and end being without kidneys)

So just don't do heroin alone, have a Naloxone for worst case scenario and heroin will be safe as milk.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

[devcpp]

Your body generally prevents you from drinking too much water, and from eating too much food, etc. Besides, water and food is a necessity while heroin is not (far from it, almost no one will ever need it).

And that's what the person above meant: it's not the highly addictive or the easily lethal nature of heroin that is a problem, but the combination of both. Most things that combine these two attributes are illegal.

However, I go agree that there is a problem with the fact that it is so addictive that making it illegal makes things worse because of low quality products. Doesn't undermine the point of the post above though. In an ideal world, no one would try to get heroin.

[stplsd]

>In an ideal world, no one would try to get heroin

It's a sad statement.

In what ideal world? Brave new world type "ideal world"? World with "shiny, happy" people which you see in TV commercials? And in an ideal world, no one would try rock climbing and BASE jumping? Because these activities are far more dangerous than doing heroin.

You see, some people like hacking on perl, some playing PC games, some enjoy rock climbing and some love doing heroin. Now the tragedy comes then government makes some things so more dangerous for the user and society by making them illegal.

[diydsp]

I think we three might be able to agree the quote could be downgraded to:

"In an ideal world, heroin would be one of many fringe activities, like rock climbing, BASE jumping, etc."

In the mean time, many who pursue heroin aren't doing it as a hobby/for the exploration, but as a replacement for responsible living, a thrill as they grind their productive lives into the ground. That is the real tragedy, not that anyone, anywhere does it.

[enkephalin]

for the love of god, please don't go around claiming you can easily make heroin as safe as milk. some people might actually believe that.

edit: of course there are ways of 'trying' to manage risks. but it's always a gamble, and can easily still lead to some serious harm.