In response to a post on Gizmodo about the humane and sensible NYPD program of police officers carrying Narcan to give to overdosing heroin users, this comment appears:
So that’s the opinion of MartiniGuy.
Here’s a chart showing the harm factor of different drugs, according to a major study from Imperial College London, which considered both harm to the user and to others:
| Alcohol | 72 |
| Heroin | 55 |
| Crack | 54 |
| Crystal meth | 33 |
| Cocaine | 27 |
| Tobacco | 26 |
| Amphetamine/speed | 23 |
| Cannabis (marijuana) | 20 |
| GHB | 18 |
| Benzodiazepines (e.g. valium) | 15 |
| Ketamine | 15 |
| Methadone | 14 |
| Mephedrone (aka drone, MCAT) | 13 |
| Butane | 10 |
| Khat | 9 |
| Ecstacy | 9 |
| Anabolic steroids | 9 |
| LSD | 7 |
| Buprenorphine | 6 |
| Mushrooms | 5 |
And here’s a chart showing deaths from various drugs, showing a larger and growing alcohol deaths problem and a smaller and steady heroin deaths problem:
I think almost everybody is probably like MartiniGuy: alcohol abuse is “normal,” heroin abuse isn’t, so let the heroin users die. Our capacity to fit our moral understanding to our personal behavior is very powerful.