Interesting point, and I think it would be a very good idea to carefully weigh up the damage caused by the black market against the damage that could be caused by higher availability of drugs which (no matter what the article implies) are harmful and highly addictive.
The article doesn't imply anything that I noticed. It completely agrees that heroin is highly addictive, and it completely denies that heroin is necessarily harmful in and of itself.
I know a couple of people who are on continuous morphine for severe back or kidney pains... it doesn't seem to do them any harm, other than messing with the smooth running of their digestive system (which is mentioned in the article and my own experiences in hospital also agree with). I'm inclined to believe that heroin is less harmful than common perception allows for, although I wouldn't be brave enough to claim it's harmless :)
I do agree with you that use would almost undoubtedly rise if it was legalised and possibly even issued free or on prescription. I'm not sure whether or not that could still be a net gain for society at large if those addicts were being better behaved.
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I don't know enough about it.
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I know a couple of people who are on continuous morphine for severe back or kidney pains... it doesn't seem to do them any harm, other than messing with the smooth running of their digestive system (which is mentioned in the article and my own experiences in hospital also agree with). I'm inclined to believe that heroin is less harmful than common perception allows for, although I wouldn't be brave enough to claim it's harmless :)
I do agree with you that use would almost undoubtedly rise if it was legalised and possibly even issued free or on prescription. I'm not sure whether or not that could still be a net gain for society at large if those addicts were being better behaved.