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gwern comments on A rationalist's guide to psychoactive drugs - Less Wrong Discussion

59 Post author: Skatche 10 February 2011 01:01AM

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Comment author: gwern 12 April 2012 12:02:56AM 0 points [-]

3.) Heroin addicts are usually so unhealthy because of drug prohibition, not because of the drug itself. Some of the things heroin is cut with are dangerous in combination with it (like quinine), or just plain dangerous; its manufacture is illegal and there is no quality control; and it is expensive, so addicts engage in behaviors like injection or theft.

From reading about heroin, isn't a lot of the danger from the acids involved in synthesizing onto the original morphine the 2 acetyl groups, leftover in the final powder?

Comment author: Hul-Gil 12 April 2012 05:33:18AM *  -1 points [-]

I don't think so - acetic anhydride is really the only other reagent involved in the step we're considering, and an excess wouldn't be harmful in any way... except, possibly, making the product a bit uncomfortable to ingest, if too much acetic acid was left over. (An excess of acetic anhydride is commonly used so as to make sure all the morphine reacts; any excess will become acetic acid - i.e., vinegar - as well.) It's common for a little to be left over, giving heroin its characteristic (vinegar-y) smell, but I don't think it's dangerous.

So I'd say that there's no danger here... but lack of quality control in general is definitely a big problem indeed.

Comment author: inblankets 24 February 2013 04:03:28PM 0 points [-]

I don't know about other cities, but I've used heroin in NYC off and on for almost 5 years, and I can safely say that, although I attempted to control for nutrition etc., I almost always had some deleterious effects on my skin etc. from (presumably) additives, even using "pure" stuff. If you're taking something in intravenously, very pure is not pure enough.

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