I was being hyperbolic, there definitely are functional addicts in high skilled jobs. I found
a more recent study, it states "These preliminary findings suggest that heroin abuse is significantly associated with damage to white matter integrity." I think
this is the one I read originally and I interpreted "A distinct entity, spongiform
leukoencephalopathy, has been described mainly after inhalation of pre-heated heroin" as "mushy" cos I have no idea what it means.
The problem is that it’s hard to differentiate what damage is caused by opiates and what damage is caused by rough living, sleepless nights and pre-addiction issues.
Like it’s no secret for example that a large number of addicts have dual diagnosis.
Ultimately I think that opiates, by themselves, are a lot easier on the body than for example alcohol or cocaine.
Being able to use on top of methadone is exactly why addicts prefer it. Most over here only get on maintenance so they don't get sick if they can't get money to score, so they don't wanna be on something that will make them sick if they use.
They do the same with suboxone.
AFAIR the medium term success rates with suboxone aren’t all that great. (I think something like a third are still drug free after a year, which is statistically equal or worse than methadone. Depending on what study you use.)
But there are a lot of money in suboxone from the patents to docs slinging it for Medicaid cash, so it’s pimped as this new wondersruf against opiate addiction.
There are three drugs used for opiate dependency: Methadone, morphine and suboxone/Subutex.
They all have some problems they share and also some individual issues.
And as always, there are two kinds of addicts: The ones that try to quit/get better, and the ones who use methadone/sub/morphine as their baseline drug to get well, and use on top.
(In either case I guess it’s a win. If you use methadone and get high on top, I guess that means less cars you break into or whatever.)
The problem is that governments love easy fixes and always have lots of cash to throw at things like new “wonder drugs” like suboxone. Just like methadone before it.
But we already know how to “cure” addicts. The gold standard in abstinence treatments (which are the programs they run for doctors) have a success rate of around 80%.
The problem is that it takes 6-12 months of rehab and follow up care and is expensive as hell.
So everyone gets 30 days in a shitty rehab, and prescription for suboxone. Rincenrepeat six months later when they invariably end up shooting smack again.
BTW: Glad to see that there are quite a few ex addicts here on the farms who are doing well. Not gonna PL but I’ve been there too.
@unwieldy_object that is surprising. I suspect its cos GABA receptors take much longer to recover, once you have gone through the initial withdrawal from benzos, your ability to sleep and regulate anxiety will still take a very long time to get back to normal. Just not being able to sleep properly for months will drive a person mad.
PL, got addicted to heroin when my doctor told me I'd kill my liver if I kept drinking and abusing benzos, used heroin to make withdrawals tolerable, then couldn't stop. So have done withdrawals from both. Would take a smack rattle over benzos any time.
Yeah, benzo withdrawal can actually kill you, whereas heroin just makes you wish you were dead. (Aside from like one or few edge cases where extreme dehydration led to death.)
Benzo tolerance also rises incredibly fast, probably even faster than with opiates.
I remember back in the day in these shady private forums, you had folks ordering dirt cheap benzos from India for like 20$ for 100.
And of course you had some who developed these absolutely insane habits. Talking about 20-30 2mg klonopin a day just to be able to function and not seize out.
They cut down on those it seems, but it’s probably even worse today with research benzos off the dark web.
