Malini Frederick, Spring 2010
Heroin has gotten a bad reputation. All you hear about it is negative. But the thought of legalizing it? You are probably shaking your head in horror. Really though, what personal experience do you really have with heroin? Isn’t all you know based on the media, which we know is biased and skewed, shock television movies, and what your parents told you-the same parents who told you a jolly fat man would bring you presents on Christmas Eve? The fact is that heroin is already legalized in liquid and pill form, so why not just go all the way and legalize it completely?
People who don’t even use heroin are paying for it anyway. A cover story in Chemical & Engineering News states that “Heroin drains society of billions in costs for crime…incarceration… and death [from impureness]” (Johnson 88). Legalizing heroin would save enormous amounts of money.
The illegality of heroin is also forcing the taxpaying public to fund methadone clinics as a substitute. That’s right, heroin users can go to these clinics and get a free legal high from liquid synthetic heroin to keep them from using illegal narcotics. It’s all paid for by their health insurance that is provided at low or no cost. You may be aware of this. But what you may not know is that cash reimbursement for gas is provided to those who travel there. Do those of you who drink get reimbursed your gas money to drive to the bar or package store?
Suboxone is another opiate substitute that comes in pill form. Again, this is completely paid for by insurance, and simply picked up at the drugstore about once a month. That’s a thirty day supply of a synthetic drug that can get you high. Although there is a black market for methadone, Suboxone is more popular because it is easily bought and sold on the streets. Selling Suboxone to buy heroin is a common and profitable activity. So trying to make a legal substitute for heroin has simply backfired and just created more drug abuse and more crime.
Everyone can benefit from legalizing heroin. Have you ever suffered a painful injury, and then had to go to the hospital wait hours for treatment in agony? You could have cured all your pain instantly, and quelled your insurance worries for the time being with a soothing quick injection.
Heroin can calm you down and keep you from wasting time worrying. And how about depression? For some people, it is chronic and long lasting. Those people seek out a shrink and some long term anti-depressants, many of which have side effects even worse than depression. Just watch some daytime t.v. and see how many lawyers’ ads there are for compensation for serious harm done from these drugs. Even if you feel fine right now, who knows what will happen in the future? “Ten percent of men and 25% of women will suffer from depression some time in their lives, and it often recurs” (Wall Street Journal). This means that you yourself have a fair chance of being depressed at some point. Even if you just have a “bad day,” why deal with it? Why not just waltz through it happily with an inexpensive bag of dope?
The argument many people will initially make is that heroin is a dangerous, illegal drug. Illegal, true. But dangerous? Many people who use heroin were depressed and anxious to begin with, and after wasting time and money on a shrink and getting talked into taking the aforementioned dangerous prescription medications, in despair turn to heroin for the relief they did not get from these socially accepted sources. However, with their prescribed Klonopin in their system, the heroin plays up the narcotic effect, and thus, an overdose may happen. So it is really the legal, but controlled substance, that is at fault.
For those of you who are with my argument, and can appreciate the benefits of the so-called dangerous drug, but are scared of needles, fear not. Heroin can be snorted. There is no need for anything fancy, an easily obtained straw will do. You can even eat heroin.
Many people think legalizing drugs will cause problems. Recently, Massachusetts decriminalized pot, and there has been no negative ramifications from it except the fact that police are now free to pursue other worthwhile activities like catching child molesters and murderers instead of hassling innocent tokers. If we were to do away with archaic heroin laws, there will be many visible signs of change, and they will all be for the better of society. We’re already giving away heroin in synthetic forms; why not just go all the way? Doing heroin makes you feel the way the winner of American Idol feels when the final votes come in. If you don’t agree with my argument, the next time you are in physical or emotional pain, which will happen sooner than you think, think of all the people who are high and happy. Because I guarantee they aren’t thinking about you.
Works Cited
Antidepressant Use Is Evaluated. (2006, January 3). Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition). D.4. Web. April 28, 2010.
Johnson, Jeff. “Methadone.” Chemical & Engineering News. Jun 20, 2005. 83(25). Print.