I partially agree with that. I think, though, there's no point for addicts to say who is better than who, the bottom line is that they are addicts needing help. If a hardcore heroin addict and a guy taking 30 percs a day ended up at the same NA meeting, they wouldn't kick out the guy on percs just because he wasn't as "hardcore." It's about addicts helping addicts, and that's the bottom line.

Whatever your method of ingestion, swallowing a pill, shooting up, chasing the dragon, whatever- the end result of daily recreational use is the same...addiction. That being said, if you're not shooting up, you're not getting the same quality high. How many people do you hear bragging they shot up a few times and never got addicted? Not many. Many people's lives change with that first shot, and a real heroin addict who still had an ounce of humanity would never suggest any newcomer try it because it is that good of a high. It takes a strong-willed person to get clean off heroin and I admire anyone who has done it.

With a pill like Oxy or Dilaudid, you are guaranteed of a certain potency. When you buy a deck of heroin off the shady guy on the street corner, you have no idea what's in there- you have no idea how strong it is. So it is quite possible that the potency isn't good enough that a pill habit would result in worse withdrawals, physically. But what hasn't been mentioned is that psychological addiction to the needle. Many heroin addicts love that ritual- they feel like god when they push that plunger and realize they are capable of giving themselves such an intense feeling. And the high is better IV'd anyway, so I still think that the psychological withdrawal would be worse from an IV heroin user, even if the physical withdrawal possibly might not be.

And as for what night_shade said about pill freaks, she wasn't referring to chronic pain sufferers, as she is one herself. She was simply saying that ALL addiction is dangerous, which is true. She wasn't calling everyone on DB a pill freak, if that's what offended you? Addiction is a horrible disease no matter how you cut it- pills, powders, liquids, or plants.

And to wrap this up- the mods have made it clear that this board isn't for discussion of addiction. I myself don't see the harm in a forum about it, and it is obvious that there are some addicts here, but the mods do run the board, and that's a wish we should respect. There are a lot of other boards for discussing recreational use and addiction.

-yawkaw