Actually, pure heroin is virtually harmless. The only adverse reactions you face from continuous use are dependency and constipation. What makes the drug so harmful in its illicit form are the adulterants and the lifestyle that accompanies such an addiction.

If more of it was contaminated there’d certainly be one less innocent shopkeeper in critical condition right now. Poor fella was attacked with a needle

@Abby, actually heroin addicts issues are with dosage control. Most die after over-dosing, passing out, inhaling their own vomit and asphyxiating.

@Aisling, there are many resources available to drug users of all kinds and methods, the first port of call, as with all addictions, is admitting the addiction.

That said, obviously I hope nobody comes in contact with the contaminated batch, and if they do, the advice is here – get thee to a hospital. Stat.

@Michael

Actually, overdosing on heroin alone is extremely uncommon – nearly all heroin ‘overdoses’ consist of a combination of heroin and alcohol, or heroin and benzos.

Abby
Should’ve said that too – most are in conjunction with the use of other substances – ie, alcohol, etc.
Thanks!

I find a lot of the comments here pretty disturbing. Their anger and prejudice towards this extremely vulnerable group within society seems to have been fed to them by tabloid scaremongering when in reality, treating them with more compassion would benefit society as a whole.

Nobody chooses addiction, and the majority of heroin users don’t want to live the way they do. Not all heroin addicts need to turn to crime to feed their habits, many have jobs and you wouldn’t suspect for a moment that they use the drug. But the stigma of heroin addiction is comparable to that of leprosy in Biblical times and consequently heroin addiction can be an isolating disease. I choose the word ‘disease’ because the affliction is very much a disease, you cannot compare it to alcohol, gambling or very many other addictions because with heroin the addiction is very physical. When you’re an addict, you need heroin to feel normal and your body craves it as much as it needs food. Heroin addicts can be perfectly normal people leading normal lives when they have a supply of the drug, but the real problems arise when they cannot obtain the drug and as a result, they may have to resort to crime to feed their addiction. If cigarettes were banned in the morning many smokers would be doing the same thing.

But what would I know, I’m only a junkie.

Abby,youre right. No one choses to become an addict but people do choose to take heroin knowing they are gonna end up in bits and on the streets and probably commiting crimes too.
Take some responsibility.

@ Tommy C

I wouldn’t say all heroin users become addicts. When I say I’m a ‘junkie’ by no means am I saying I am an addict, but I use heroin occasionally, once or twice a month maybe. I have never had an addiction and I have never committed a crime to pay for my drugs.

Even if somebody chooses to try heroin, do they deserve it? We all make mistakes in our teenage years and I reckon that’s when heroin addiction begins for most. If a person begins drinking in their teens and eventually becomes an alcoholic, should we not show any sympathy for them? Some people are far more vulnerable to addiction than others and nobody becomes an addict by using once – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

OK folks, this thread is about to dissolve into something different, before it does, it should end.

Yes, we should all take responsibility for all of our actions, all of the time.

Thank you TheJournal for bringing this to our attention, and should anyone feel they have consumed said Heroin, get in contact with your local health care provider.

Discussion closed.

In the words of some famous cartoon character, “that’s all folks”!

Aisling, they’re already taking something that’s harmful to them …

Lol, lovely view. Kill all junkies eh? Sigh!! And no, I have never touched the stuff, nor would I, but I have experienced life in impoverished areas, where it is not merely a choice whether to use or not, where kids are born addicted, through no choice of their own, and grow up knowing nothing but heroin. It’s the likes of your misplaced anger that stops these children being rehabilitated and seeing a life outside heroin. But sure, let’s just put them in a field and kill them. Ignorance, I say yet again, is bliss

lot of pure fascist comments, an when all junkies are liquidated, who will we move onto next?

Scobes?

Ha ha ha!!

@Mrs.Mulverhill

When all the junkies are liquidated, Craig Doyle will be eliminated.

The heroin epidemic can be addressed by enforcing the laws that are already there, implementing detox programs as part of sentencing, early intervention and increased numbers of visible gardai on the beat. You also must examine the root causes of the problem too. Tough and consistent penalties where offenses against the person are concerned play a huge part but are not a solution in themselves as long as the prison system is in itself a university of crime and awash with drugs.

The problem is that while they work, these are expensive and time consuming. They require politicians to grasp the nettle once and for all and while attacking the symptoms also going after the cause. That’s vital. Death through heroin is one of the most awful and undignified ways for someone to go. It really strips the personality away. Everyone agrees that the attacks have to stop – we need to begin to address why so many people want to take the drug to begin with. Unless you do that the problem will always be around.

Lost – I agree.

There’s something going on in this country at the moment I think and it’s unpleasant.

According to the sentiment of many web postings foreigners should all go home (despite significant emigration).
People should starve instead of signing on (despite paying PRSI for years, making an effort and having been made redundant – apparently the full 15% claiming social welfare are all wasters)
People with genuine problems should fk off somewhere else too.
People with mental issues deserve to be executed.
People who are starving deserve no help.

Is there some kind of right wing movement forming in Ireland – is it just loud ignorant people?

Addiction, it’s not just a bit of fun – it’s ADDICTION. As pointed out in a post above, there are many reasons. Apparently the solution is a bit 1930′s Germany though – fk them all, they are a drain on the country.

Next there will be calls for leaving certificate math questions to calculate how much of a “drain” physically/mentally impaired people are on society.

Oh and P.S. Stephen – I’m assuming you have no experience of alcohol abuse in the home?

@Tomy. Very true, everything you’ve said there. Anyone perceived as benefiting from the social protections we have in place is now seen as a drain on the system that we’re better off without. This is despite the fact that when jobs were available we had almost full employment here. As low as 3.5% at one point – I don’t want to deviate from the topic but this tells me pretty clearly that when jobs are available people will take them.

I’d always considered myself leaning to the libertarian side of this but some of the comments you see these days are just vile, half-baked redtop “analysis” without giving any thought to the root cause of the problems or how to address them. Anger is understandable but overall we need to be bigger than that when looking for workable solutions. I find it difficult to believe that people make a conscious decision that they want to spend their lives homeless and in and out of prison.

And who knows? I wonder, how many of the hang ‘em high types on here this evening might have at a very difficult time in their lives when they were perhaps younger and a bit naive, been tempted to try heroin?

Also (and I do think this is worth mentioning) there’s been a trend of late where whenever someone or some topic crops up where money is being spent to treat illness or addictions that are perceived to be of the individuals own making all the usual suspects clamour in chorus that they should be left to rot.

I don’t think that’s where we want to be as a country.

Fair point and I agree but can someone come up with a workable solution to deal with this problem. Dublin city centre is fast becoming a s**t hole, we are having innocent people robbed on a daily basis and the whole “a it could happen to my kids some day” isn’t gonna solve anything.

Vinny – in terms of how to deal with drugs, Portugal pretty much points the way forward. It’s been 10 years since drug use was decriminalised. (I don’t want to insult your intelligence by pointing this out but some need it said: decriminalisation of drug use is not an open legalisation of drugs – producers still get prosecuted).

The Portugal experience is described well here:
http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog/time-to-end-the-war-on-drugs
Sweden have the opposite approach – zero tolerance. This is simply sweeping a problem which will exist in any country in western society (at least) under the carpet.
Unfortunately, the path to hell is paved with good intentions. The so called war on drugs offers little understanding to the user and often just fuels gangland crime – the result is that people ask “what are the cops doing about this scourge” in relation to both drugs AND gangland crime. In the meantime the addicted get lost and organised crime grows.

There are benefits, both social and economic to decriminalising drugs.

The same can be said for prostitution where New Zealand shows that decriminalisation actually makes it safer for both sex workers and “johns” – and acknowledges the reality that there will always be supply and demand in certain areas; prohibiting just contributes to rape, beatings etc.

In saying the above, Dublin has a bit of a problem with treatment centres becoming target sales areas for drug dealers. It’s not the best value for cops to address it at this level – better effect at importation level. The unfortunate thing about dealing with street level dealers is that it’s often “expendable” people who get picked up and very easily replaced so it might take it away from our eyes briefly but not for long and not effectively.

Oh and maybe a more direct solution would be to pick up those who are obviously out of it and put them in some kind of holding space overnight – referring them on for treatment afterward?

Better than allowing them to stay out on the street doing harm to others and hopefully opening a door towards treatment…..

Drugs need to be discussed and compared to reverse ignorance. For example every seven hours in Ireland someone dies from an alcohol related illness but you don’t hear about that. Paracetamol is way more toxic than heroin (unless there’s anthrax in it of course) but the damage of heroin addiction is more obvious/offensive to you, the only way to help the matter is look at the societal issues. Stephen you could put poison in all the heroin but as long as there’s kids growing up in broken homes, in poverty, bored with no aspirations and trying to deal with whatever crazy hand they were thrown in this life as well as living in the vicinity of the dealers that will sell to them as soon as they’re old enough to exchange money, you’ll always have to sniff your nose at people in the street that aren’t as tax worthy as you.

I know we can’t just magically fix the problem but we could implement sensible policies that have worked in other countries to improve things a whole lot. The dutch model has worked outstandingly in way of separating soft drugs with hard drugs like heroin, addicts can be treated and it’s a medical issue. A decade of decriminalization has halved Portugal’s hard drug use etc. etc.

@juliana

What about babies born to addict mothers? Doesn’t seem to be much choice in that case.

Difene doesnt contain codeine either.

.Now you are being pedantic!

Codeine’s addictive stuff. Banned in the USA, okay in Ireland & UK.

“Over The Counter products containing Codeine include:- Co-Codamol, Solpadeine, Syndol, Solpadol, Solpaflex, Codis, Paracodol, Propain Plus, Panadol Ultra, Feminax, Cuprofen Plus and Nurofen Plus. Dihydrocodine is found in the OTC product Paramol.”
from: http://www.codeinefree.me.uk/