When heroin was legal (interesting from a historical perspective)

[...of J.Temperance]

As recently as the 1950s, heroin was a popular medicine prescribed by family doctors. But growing fears about the drug's addictiveness led to the start of it becoming criminalised, 50 years ago this week.

"The Case for Heroin" - so ran the headline for the Times leader column of Tuesday, 14 June 1955.

In the course of a short, lucid article the newspaper which had long been the mouthpiece of Establishment Britain set out its argument in favour of heroin.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4647018.stm

It seems extraordinary now to think that anybody would approve of anybody taking heroin.

[meegbear]

1. When cocaine addition was an issue ...

doctors were actually marketing herion as a "non-addictive" substitute.

[Warpy]

2. It was supposed to cure the morphine addiction produced

in World War I. Lots of people approved of it, not knowing it was even more addictive than the morphine it replaced.

However, I'm still all in favor of ending the drug war. It's over. The DEA lost. All they succeeded in doing was eliminating the fourth amendment here and pissing a whole lot of people off abroad. I would rather tolerate a small minority of people nodding off in doorways than the horror show the drug war has produced in this country and elsewhere. Yes, some people will waste their lives on drugs, but they're managing to do that very nicely now, in spite of the drug war. It would be far better to pour resources currently wasted on harassing doctors and bullying peasants and incarcerating nonviolent citizens here into research into addiction and better methods of treatment, and into the treatments we now have.

(As for me, I tried the stuff and I didn't like it and I'm far from unique. Most of my friends from the 60s who tried it also had a pretty negative reaction to it. Most people really don't enjoy opiates all that much unless they're in serious pain, and then it's enjoyment of having the pain reduced)

[sam sarrha]

3. today much suffering of eminently terminal Patients could be prevented

with Heroin.. but the political campaign clout of soft on drugs prevents its 'Compassionate' use.

[yurbud]

4. someone figured out you can charge more and avoid taxes if it's illegal