Dangers of Drugs
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-06-03Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 13 →
Transcribed from the scan of page 13 (23 Oct 2026) after a reader report. 'whch' is as printed.
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SOME readers questioned my statement that "heroin, taken hygienically and in moderation has few if any long-term effects".
My source for this information was a lecture, by the head of drugs research for Reckitt and Colman's Pharmaceutical Division, on the properties of the various opiate drugs. This does not mean that heroin is a safe drug under all circumstances.
For one thing, the lethal dose is fairly close to the effective dose (the amount that is needed to make you feel good), and accidental over-dose is a frequent cause of death.
But as far as side-effects are concerned, the most notable ones are constipation, loss of ability in men to erect and ejaculate, and insensitivity to pain (it is an anaesthetic, after all) which can lead to injuries going unnoticed.
The only long-term effect of continued use of heroin is physical addiction, whch sets in after about a month of regular use.
Now while we may not think addiction is a good thing, its most serious side-effect is the withdrawal symptom, caused by interruption of supply (these can be fatal).
In contrast, use of alcohol and nicotine carry with them a bewildering number of damaging side-effects and long-term effects (some of these were outlined for alcohol by Davy Jones in SO 82).
In this sense therefore it is possible to say that heroin is a safer drug than alcohol or nicotine.
However, over-use of any drug is a bad thing and as socialists we should be particularly worried that both alcoholism and heroin addiction are increasing among young unemployed.