heroin or booze?

Question

what is the most addictive and why is one accepted and one not is it not true that both lead to missery and addiction.

Answer 1

Both destroy your life and both keeps you in financial hardship as well.
Heroin is the most addictive and most dangerous no matter what quantity you use?
Booze and Heroine are also both dangerous if your stupid enough to drive as you not only risking your own life but those of many Innocent drivers and passengers as well,most with young kids in there car.
Both lead to depression,suicide and misery.
Booze and Heroin are very life threaten if used in large quantities in a short period of time let alone over a long period of time.
Both cause brain damage and kills good brain cells needed for every day functions.
Also both addictions can lead to you stealing to support the habit when you own cash flows run out.

Best advice seek help if you need it and better still don't start either addiction as it will ruin your life and those around you which are family, friends and children's trust..

Neither should be excepted but sadly grog is up there amongst the highest for killing life's.

Answer 2

First off, forget the answers above. You will note that none come with references.

Whether something is "addictive" depends on a lot of factors, most of them having to do with the individual. For example, gambling is referred to as "addictive" when it has no actual substance at all.

This ought to tell you something about the nature of "addiction".

In addition, research has shown that it is unlikely that most people would ever become addicted to heroin simply because most people don't like the effects that much. Like, for instance, it tends to make you puke suddenly. Not my idea of a fun evening.

You can find a chart of the relative addictive qualities of various drugs at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/basicfax5.htm

That is one of the best analyses available but still doesn't take into account the fact that most people will not like many of those drugs, for one reason or another.

Alcohol has gone through stages of acceptance. In the early 1900s it was sold widely but became wildly unpopular for various political and social reasons. You can read a good short summary of those reasons at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm

You can read some good information on why alcohol prohibition was repealed at http://www.druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults.htm

You can read an excellent history of how the opiates became illegal in the first several chapters of the Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/cu/cumenu.htm

In short, alcohol was outlawed for some fairly good reasons. It genuinely was, and is, a major hazard to society. The laws against the opiates like heroin were the work of a fairly small group of people who did not make their final motives entirely apparent. There really wasn't much of a problem with heroin before the laws were passed, even though it was sold openly and, at one time, even included in baby colic remedies. The major problems arose only after the laws were passed.

BTW, morphine is legal for medical use while heroin is not. The odd thing is that they are the same drug. Heroin is diacetyl morphine. The only difference between heroin and regular morphine is dosage. Heroin is three times more potent by weight. They are both converted to the same drug when they enter the body so there is no significant medical difference between them. The laws against heroin were a flat-out mistake. You can read the full history linked above.

Answer 3

Heroin is more addictive.
Booze is accepted because it's been around a long time and can be used in a positive way. People have tried to get rid of it, but Jesus turning water into wine sort of undermines this. Admittedly it can be abused and harms society.
Heroin is accepted as an excellent pain killer in hospital, but recreational use can limit the productivity of individuals and compromise their health and finances and those of others around them. Being criminalised probably makes it worse, but what do you do? I accept Booze isn't good for health and finances either
You hit on it in your question, acceptance is a matter of addiction and the effect it has on behaviour. If it withdraws people from society, that is not a good thing. Imagine how quiet and boring the pub would be if everyone was sprawled around with their head in the clouds.

Answer 4

Alcohol is legal. Heroin is not. And do not believe those who say you can die from coming off of heroin. Not true. A true alcoholic can definitely die without medical supervision. I am not saying that a heroin addict has never died trying to detox, but detox off alcohol without help has been proven to be way more deadly. All drugs and alcohol can make anybody's life hell if they cannot use it in moderation. Drugs usually don't lead to misery and addiction. Some other painful life experience, eventually, leads to addiction and then misery. Most drug addicts were already miserable before they turned to their substance of choice. Addiction just tops it off.

Answer 5

Alcohol is accepted because it is legal. it is legal because it is big business AND this is very important, the common man demands his escape. They tried to out law booze in the 1930s and look what happened.

For some reason the condition of life seems to come with the desire to escape from the one we live. But not totally.

Which is most addictive? Which has destroyed more lives? Caused more misery? Broken more families? Killed more people?

In quantity you would have to say alcohol. Because it is cheaper and easier to get your hands on. But other than that I think the race is close.

Answer 6

I think heroin is the more addictive, but alcohol is more readily available and the social acceptability of this drug makes it more dangerous.
Ironically, from the health point of view, it is the stuff heroin is cut with plus the methods used to ingest it that are the problem.
Both cause misery and heartbreak to the user and their families.

Answer 7

Booze is addictive. Heroin is not. At least not the way you mean it. You will go through withdrawel if you stop drinking. If you stop doing heroin, you might get some mild flu like symptoms for a couple of days, but usually not.

However, heroin causes intense personality changes. These can be summed up in that they turn you into a scumbag. That's why it is so difficult to get people to stop using it. They no longer have any interest in stopping. No matter how depraved, screwed up or in pain their lives get, they simply don't care. They lose empathy for other people and themselves. They become sociopaths. Not good.

This is where the myth of addiction to opiates comes from. Professionals who "treat" the "addiction" are baffled at the high recidivism rate and the high "failure" rate. What they fail to understand is that isn't a human being standing in front of them anymore. The only thing that person cares about anymore is getting high and doing f-ed up things. They pretend they want help, usually because the cops chuck their nasty asses into detox or their family members are putting intense pressure on them to seek "treatment". But, they are just pretending. As soon as they can get away, they look for drugs.

The handful of people who actually want off drugs, find quitting as easy as not taking them anymore. A good support program that includes Antabuse is very helpful to prevent backsliding. Momentary stupidity that might cause them to fall back into the old pattern again, is prevented by the Antabuse. It would take a concentrated effort and specific choice to go back to using in order to start up again. THESE people have a HIGH success rate and a LOW recidivism rate. They are rare though.

The danger of opiates is not addiction via fear of withdrawel because that mostly doesn't exist like it does for alcohol and tobacco. Addiction (if you can call it that) is much more insidious and dangerous. Opiates undermine the very foundation which might underlie a person's desire to quit. Without this desire, quitting is not possible unless you cut off the supply of drugs to the community.....and THAT our society refuses to do in any serious manner.

I cannot think of a better reason for people to avoid opiate drugs like the plague that they are. You take them and they destroy who you are. They rot away your humanity. They destroy your soul.

Answer 8

Two depressants. One legal and one not. Both great at killing pain and heroin is used as pain medication for terminally ill in Great Britain. Both very costly socially, financially, emotionally, etc. Both have been responsible for putting many people into custody. Both are highly addictive so I cannot actually state which would be more addictive as they equally share with this misery.

Answer 9

I was addicted to crack for five years but anyone who is addicted to H or C can get over that addiction and go on with their life. The bad part is that alcohol is often the road traveled (almost like a pacifier) to get over whatever it is that they are addicted to in the first place and it just dominos over and over and over. You are right about the misery part, it is horrible.

Answer 10

i beleive herion is quicker to become addicted to than drink, but both as addictive as the other. And yes can lead to a life of misery