>Prescribed heroin would save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in ER OD cases and the acquisitive crime that this disorder causes.
If you get a prescription for heroin that would probably lead to addiction right? Now as an addict you want more, so you go back to the doctor but they won't prescribe anymore ostensibly to prevent overdose. So now you have an addict looking for a way to score more outside of a doctor prescription which would still open them up to every single risk that currently exists today. Seems like the end result is going to be the same either way unless doctors continually up the dosages prescribed, no?
I think you're using the incorrect mental model of addicts popularized by DARE, etc.
I mean first -
> If you get a prescription for heroin that would probably lead to addiction right?
Decently sure OP is suggesting replacing obtaining heroin from the street with obtaining it through a doctor. As such, only existing (and new) addicts are effected; you would not create addicts.
Alternatively, this story you have told is already the case with other prescription opiates.
> Now as an addict you want more
> continually up the dosages prescribed, no?
I mean, do alcoholics do this? Or gamblers? Adrenaline junkies? Yes and no.
Basically, most of what you know about drugs is inaccurate, and addiction (and escalation of addiction) is complicated. For instance, the rat park experiments indicate that addiction is a coping mechanism - rats in individual cages experience addiction; rats in group cages, not so much. Simply by obtaining the drugs from a sympathetic ear, you can reduce the dependence on the drugs.
You have a great comment, and I agree with much of it. However, Rat Park doesn't replicate and probably shouldn't be touted as a good example of addiction behavior.
Interesting. However, those are attempting to replicate the results, and not the experiment; from my level of education and based on the abstracts, that sounds more like "significant results" rather than "disproving results".
The first abstract actually describes a theory that cannot be correct given the Rat Park experiment as described on Wikipedia, due to group PC (no new rats were supplied to that group). Or, rather, a theory that does not explain group PC.
If you get a prescription for heroin that would probably lead to addiction right?
Under what circumstances do you think doctors would be prescribing heroin? Because a person wants to give it a try? For recreational use? Doctors already prescribe (under heavy regulation) narcotics for pain relief. If they were to prescribe heroin, I can't imagine it would be cavalierly prescribed for anything, other to address existing addiction, not unlike methadone treatments today.
... and this is where most Heroin addicts start, actually, through prescription opiate use. Once a physical addiction is formed, heroin can be a cheaper or more accessible alternative to a prescription for say, Oxycontin.
Why? Black market heroin can be produced without quality control standards, intellectual property licensing, in a country with cheap labor, and imported without paying tariffs. The distribution network is a little inefficient, sure, but you can pay a lot of mid-level dealers' markup for the cost of a 30 minute doctor's appointment.
The crackdown on "pill mills" meant that the cost of oxycodone shot up on the streets over the last 5 years. Demand remains the same, supply is lessened.
Not really, most heroin users reach a sort of stable dose, which can be very high.
The idea is you stabilize people's lives. Prescribe them heroin for say 3 months to start with. Their lives are no longer endless crime, prostitution, police cells etc. They can get housing and other things sorted without having to also find $1000s a month for a drug habit.
From that the community is already seeing a benefit (less crime and the market for black market heroin mostly vanishes), and then from that you can start helping people reduce their dose and get proper drug treatment while living a far more normal life.
There will probably be some black market dealing, but it will be much smaller scale and won't have anywhere near the scale.
