Comments on: A weekend in Eilat or a weekend on heroin?

By: Raphael Amselli

Raphael Amselli — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:08:56 +0000

" I do believe we should talk about the real reasons people take drugs". So very true. My Local Rabbi set up a charity that used to do exactly that: go to the root of the problem and help resolve it rather than attempt to wean them from their addiction, which seem to me a symptom.
Unfortunately the charity had to close down a few month ago after running for 25 years due to lack of funding.

By: Brian John Thomas

Brian John Thomas — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 21:57:15 +0000

I've updated the post which I hope answers some of Laura and Lorelai's points.

UPDATE: Since receiving some comments and emails I want to elaborate some points that perhaps don’t come through with my slightly British sense of humour.

Heroin is not like a weekend holiday. Heroin is a way of distracting (completely) oneself from life. I was making a flippant comparison for those with disposable incomes that stretch to expensive holidays.

I’ve seen much written about heroin by writers who don’t seem to understand the enormous power of forgetting ones life and falling into oblivion: to concentrate on the transient high is to utterly miss the point.

Heroin is not given medically to elderly patients or people with respiratory weakness. It will kill them. It is difficult to dose correctly and will suppress breathing, including fatally, if a patient is not monitored closely.

And that’s the pure stuff: I shudder to imagine what you’d get buying it on the street. Needless to say for all these reasons it really is as bad as you think it is: but I hope you understand why some still do it.

By: Lorelai Lehrer

Lorelai Lehrer — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 16:23:11 +0000

You eloquently explained that Heroin (or it's legal and socio/medically acceptable counterpart) is A VACATION FROM CARING. It makes you not care about your own pain or the pain (or harm) you cause others, and the short term/long term effect is that you don't care about ANYTHING but ensuring that you never care about anything again as long as you live when you become addicted to Heroin. So is a "vacation in Eilat" a vacation from caring? No, it's a vacation from real life but there's still caring involved – you care about your self, your spouse and children, your business – you've just removed yourself from one environment and put yourself into another – one where it's socially acceptable to say "Hold my calls, I'm on vacation." Heroin is, on the other hand, a 1-way ticket to "I don't care about anything except an uninterrupted supply of this" land.

By: Alan Miller

Alan Miller — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 16:13:18 +0000

So, it's really true, Brian, that heroin is truly the opiate of the asses.

By: Brian John Thomas

Brian John Thomas — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:53:02 +0000

You may be right: perhaps I'm talking UP to the audience here too much and neglecting the power of google to bring people randomly here. I'm making an implicit assumption that the readership here is not largely composed of people just looking for a good reason to go out and try heroin.

I don't want to seem to be advocating using this stuff, but I think the idea of scaring people away from it and hoping they won't learn what it does, is wrong too. In the end I don't think people start or stop using a drug based on writing such as this. But understanding it's nature is vital if we are to really understand who is at risk of being tempted by it.

By: Brian John Thomas

Brian John Thomas — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:53:02 +0000

By: Brian John Thomas

Brian John Thomas — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:53:02 +0000

By: Brian John Thomas

Brian John Thomas — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:53:02 +0000

By: Laura Ben-David

Laura Ben-David — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:46:42 +0000

Brian, I read this article with particular interest. In addition to having delivered the potent drug in my former life as an RN, a few years ago I had pretty traumatic, life-saving surgery, and in my abdomen as well. Two days recovering in the ICU included the privilege of having your first-class ticket mainlined into my pain-wracked body. I can still remember the dizzying feeling of flying, and the hallucinations that accompanied the drug. I also remember vividly the severe, burning, oh-my-G-d-how-will-I-survive-this pain that came when there was a temporary occlusion in the IV line. I was petrified to go off of it, but ultimately it was not a choice that was given to me and I too had to take the much-less-effective pills.

I'm afraid that your article, rather than push people away from the stuff, almost makes it into a viable vacation option: "…it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than a weekend in Eilat", etc. I know you agree with me here, but it just bears mentioning in a really strong way: Drugs are NOT cool, they are NOT a luxury, and you CANNOT control what it does to you, mentally or physically. Don't start. EVER.

By: Laura Ben-David

Laura Ben-David — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:46:42 +0000