chet wrote:Cant we come up with better topics for threads than this?
I don't think the thread is a bad idea, Chet. I think it's a decent topic for discussion. People take heroin. Let's talk about it.
I know people in their forties who have a session once every couple of months and have done so since their mid-teens. They get a deep relaxation from it that they wouldn't get otherwise without studying meditation or whatever, and walk on from there with their batteries recharged.
Heroin addiction is pandemic in this area. I think the people who get into a problem with it generally either don't see life in and of itself as a good thing for one reason or another, or don't have any aspirations, ambition or hope for their future. If you do have these things and you're concious of the fact that this is a highly addictive drug, I don't necessarily think it's stupid to take it. The important thing is to be very careful with it. Being a refined derivative of the world's most powerful natural painkiller, it's not to be fucked around with. I don't think that means it's to be avoided altogether.
I've taken heroin about ten to fifteen times. I've only ever taken it one way, which was to smoke / chase it. This has all been in my thirties. It hasn't blown my mind on any of these occasions, a fact I am glad of. I'm glad I know what it's like, because I now know without hesitation that I'd rather have some high quality hashish. Music sounds great on heroin, but not markedly different from being stoned, so I guess it's a relaxation thing. The laying back, washed out, letting all tension drift away feeling is - no surprise - extremely pleasurable. The powerful effects on the imagination, a lucid dreaming effect, are an experience I'm glad I've tasted. None of these make me want to go out of my way to get more or to think 'hmm, my day would be vastly improved if I did some heroin today'.
All of these things said, I have in fact voted Crap, for the following reasons:
It absolutely fucking stinks. William Burroughs did say that once you smell the sickly sweet smell of opium, you never forget it. I guess habitual users learn to love it as it's part and parcel of the thing they've come to rely on, but I find it really horrible. If intravenous use has anything going for it, it's that you wouldn't have to have that smell going in your face. I wonder how much of the vomit-inducing effects on first-time users has to do with the drug itself and how much has to do with the stench.
A very close friend of mine is really struggling with it. He's met a girl he's totally in love with and they've just bought a really beautiful place together. I've known him for three years and he's been using heroin every day throughout that time. He holds a good job and is respected by his colleagues, but now love's come into his life he desperately wants to shake this thing. It's heartbreaking to see the conflict that's obviously going on inside him (as with anyone trying to move on from addiction to anything).
My friend Michael lost one of his best friends, Marley. Marley was a really funny and nice bloke. I didn't know him that well but whenever he was around he lit up the place, a genuine life-and-soul-of-the-party. He'd never been that addicted to heroin but used to inject occasionally in the past. Just over a year ago he injected the contents of a five quid bag for the first time in a long time. Now he's gone. Five quid.
So for the friends that are struggling and the friends that have gone, it would be a dishonour to give a positive vote for heroin. I'm not in any great rush to use it again, but I'm not going to discount the possibility either. The world is not a black and white place.