Posted by revaaron on July 11, 2007, at 22:45:08
In reply to Re: A different thought., posted by FredPotter on July 11, 2007, at 20:15:56
> We have a drug in NZ called methamphetamine or
> "P". It's quite the most dangerous drug on the
> planet and yet amphetamines are stated on the
> list to be less dangerous than benzos. I
> therefore dismiss that list as ludicrousIn theory, the difference between street drugs and safely used pharmaceuticals shouldn't be that great. In practice, the gap is extremely wide. Methamphetamine (Desoxyn (tm)) is actually one of the most effective and safe drugs for AD/HD around, well tolerated and with few side effects with most people.
But yeah, that list is completely bunk. Bupe being more dangerous than solvent abuse? I have no idea where you would even start on this. It's odd that it's so low on the list, below a drug like bupe that has probably the least abuse potential of any drugs on the list, let alone the damage that would come from therapeutic or recreational use. Bupe is probably the safest drug on that list, it shouldn't be on that list. Hell, Tylenol/APAP is a quite a bit worse for you than bupe. Solvents, at the other end of the spectrum, can cause brain damage the first time you use and are probably the most dangerous of the drugs on that list in a few ways to measure that.
I'd say methamphetamine is less dangerous than benzos if used as prescribed, and again less dangerous at lower levels of abuse. I've seen what lies at the end of the road of meth abuse, I have no illusions- we have a bad meth epidemic where I live (Midwestern US). The reasons for this are many, somewhat due to the specific effects of the drug but way more due to social and economic factors as well in the effects that prohibition cause (HIV, HepC).
You see something very similar with street heroin and pharmaceutical opiates, including heroin. You could use be addicted to pharmaceutical heroin or morphine, use it every single day of your life, and have no worse for the wear other than the addiction itself. Again, I do not play down the ugliness of heroin withdrawal, but unlike alcohol or benzo withdrawal it won't kill you.
There are a lot of drugs on that list below heroin that can do irreversable damage to your body and/or mind regardless of how much harm reduction you practice, some of them can do this damage without being a regular user.
Aaron
poster:revaaron
thread:767449
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070710/msgs/769091.html