Too many opportunities for humor here, I will try to be serious.

First of all, if you were to buy Norcos by the dime bag, which is how many H addicts dose, I'm guessing you would get at most (2) pills (I have no idea of street prices for pills). The one time I tried H (a million years ago) I snorted $5 worth and it put me on the floor. No comparison there.

If you had the coin to use a NROP you could buy a significant amount of H instead, like a gram or more, in way better quality than dime bag stuff. This article: http://www.poliblogger.com/index.php?p=5498
states a street cost of ~$50/gram, that means a junkie with NROP/ROP coin could get 3-6 grams and the larger the buy, the stronger the quality. No comparison there either.

There are also legal ramifications (Sched.I vs III) as well as societal perceptions(i.e.,pill guy sad, junkie bad)

I undertstand your question and it is an interesting one, but a governmental conspiracy is a bit of a reach here.