The how and why of heroin addiction
 

Unsure the truth of this all, never tried.
Is it as described?

well just look at european nations where heroin is provided to addicts they look like addicts of course but they lead normal lives

Yea we Europeans live and work for our addictions lool :D

damn that's a creepy video

for me, i always wondered how the fucked up east hastings druggies could even afford heroin - didn't know it was $10 a day as the video says, thought it was very expensive. However this guy says that you build up a tolerance fast and it starts costing more like $100 a day - so how do they afford it? if they just steal for the money or live off government checks, that would mean they need $700 a week. That's $36k a year in tax-free money they would need to maintain their addiction? That's like a 50,xxx dollar job before the taxes are taken off? and that's only for heroin, not anything else. :fulloffuck:

watch the video on youtube where the guy spent the month homeless on the DTES and did heroin and crack, after his first stint with heroin, he got down sick when it wore off, you need a fix otherwise you get really sick

Hence, crime

If it wasn't for drugs, there would be hardly any crime at all.

that might be because its mixed with some horrible materials

i totally agree and see that...but are the hobos who look barely able to walk really making $32k a year from crime??

i know a lot of heroin users. when they haven't had a dose of it in awhile they get really sweaty and hurry things/are panicking.

it's a very hard drug to quit

Exactly. People think it's cool to hang around with gang members like the Hell's Angels. Then after an evening at the club you get to your car and find it was broken into and your stereo stolen.

So your stereo gets sold to a fence, pawn shop or maybe even traded directly to a dealer for more drugs. And you know who got the money? That gang member you thought it was cool to hang with at the club.

People just don't seem to get the connection. Next time you see some gang member driving a new Range Rover stop and think how many car stereos, iPods, laptops, phones and other items were stolen and sold at 10% of their value to pay for it.

quite a few of them are wealthy people who live as a hobo or binge in the dtes to be away from their families that is if you believe all their tales although ive witnessed some of them who've had their family, friends, even lawyers show up and give them their money; see a lot of construction workers too, they aren't dressed fantastically but they're obviously able to fund their habit

other than that it seems to be thievery or straight hustling of goods/services or begging for money on the streets

don't forget the go to way to score!

Thats not the way it works.

if you think gangsters afford range rovers through stealing car stereo's you're very mistaken :lol

^His point is the drug addicts steal the items from cars and pawn/fence them for cash. The cash is then used to buy the drugs.

:seriously:

A friend I went to high school with just recently offed himself after his third failed attempt to get off heroin he must have been on it for the better half of the last decade. Two others former friends also got hooked around the same time these guys would spend 3-4 hours travelling to different liquor stores between the two of them they would steal no joke 1000-$1500 of booze and sell it for $250-350 and would be calling their dealer before even getting cash in their hand. They smoked it on tinfoil and if they didn't get the fix they were in for vomiting,explosive diarrhea and cold sweats on a hot day. It was hard to watch them deteriorate so quick. They were all introduced to it by a small time pot dealer who wanted to move something with a much higher profit margin.

I'm curious if the guy that tried it in that video had any long term affects from it. He went straight to needle too. Would not be able to go there for the purposes of a self-produced documentary.

Had a heroin addicted tenant once....only way to really describe it, is chaos. they truly lived a life of pure chaos.

In regards to what some have said above about constant family support enabling the addiction...this was this guys issue as well. Had a place to live (until I evicted him), foor to eat, tv to watch, and money to buy heroin. He was in his 40s, had Hep C, and had tried to get clean several times before and then him and his family realized it was a lost cause...he will be addicted to heroin until the day he dies. He will never be clean, he will never live a normal life, etc...

I blame his family...they care about him enough to fund his addiction, but they don't care enough to hold their ground, support sobriety, and to walk away when he rejects it. I know why they do it...the heroin addict is the brother of a very well known political figure in the Lower Mainland. Its just hush money. They rather keep the heroin rolling and slowly kill him than risk embarrassment. Its pathetic.

Creepy documentary about heroin addiction in Swansea UK. I cringed and had to look away during some parts.

Agreed, enabling someone is the worst thing you can do. The sooner you stop helping them the better chance they have. Cut all ties, do not give them anything do not let them stay with you. The only thing you can do is tell them you're willing to take them to rehab when their ready, don't call me unless you need a ride there.

I've seen it and lived it first hand and the things people will do to the ones they care about in order to feed their addiction is mind blowing. That's the reason you can't help, not only are you helping them to keep doing what their doing but you're also dragging yourself down and it will have huge negative effects on your health and well being. It's easy to tell someone they need to stop helping but it's hard to do it. Eventually I think everyone will reach a point where they get it the sad thing is by then it might either be to late or there is to much damage done for it to ever resemble anything close to a relationship ever again.

My one and only sibling was an addict off and on (mostly on) for 10 years. I watched my parents spend probably 40K+ on rehab for her over the years and she squandered all those opportunities. Her drug was not heroin but it was just as bad. She has actually been clean for over two years which is good I guess. I don't care I hate her for what she's done and I will never forgive her. I have no contact with her unless it's to pickup my niece for the weekend. If she died I really doubt I would shed a tear, she used all my tears for her up years ago.

^ I had a best friend through Sr. High School that became an addict shorty after we graduated. I turned my back on her b/c I did not want to be involved in that lifestyle. Her parents re-mortgaged their house twice to send her to 2 different high-status rehabs...from what I hear she is doing OK now, but her brain is fried. She is 32, lives at home, has no job, and is trying to go back to school. I am not sure she will finish or really do anything with her life b/c of all the residual affects from 10 years of drug use. Physically and mentally she is a wreck....it is a real shame b/c she was very intelligent in HS.

Now her brother is going through the same thing....you have to wonder what happened when their parents were raising them for BOTH of them to turn to drugs. The parents were very educated, were upper middle class, and the mom was a stay-at-home parent. None of her other friends from HS turned to drugs and we didn't grow up in an area where that stuff was readily available...the whole thing confuses and saddens me.

Shit, these are some tragic stories.

With hearing things like that, it boggles my mind why someone would even try such addicting drugs.

The guy that dino is talking about was completely gone...it was crazy to watch. You could tell that everything he did was in service to the drug. He had learned to make himself look weak and feeble to prey on your senses of compassion, thereby continuing his lifestyle. We had to continually play to him to keep him a 'safe' factor in the building, but after he broke back in, I let loose on him a little bit and got to see the "real" man underneath. He starts snapping back at me and all I could think was "there it is"

When we finally started cleaning out his apartment, we found arterial spray in the shower, and a garbage can full of needles. Cost $90 just to have someone come and deal with the needles.