New at Reason

Tim Cavanaugh | December 6, 2004

Radley Balko discovers heroin is the crack cocaine of tortured addiction metaphors.

Comments

HS|12.7.04 @ 2:32AM|#

Come to think of it, "Hit and Run" is fast becoming the heroin of the blogosphere.

|12.7.04 @ 6:41AM|#

Pornography really does, unlike other addictions, biologically cause direct release of the most perfect addictive substance

Semen?

|12.7.04 @ 8:33AM|#

I'd think ``crack cocaine'' would do better for pornography.

|12.7.04 @ 9:28AM|#

I bugged the Cincinnati Enquirer so much about their use of the phrase, "drug-related crime" (They meant drug war-related crime.) that I think I've broken them of the habit.
If anyone ever sees that phrase, object and object again!

|12.7.04 @ 9:45AM|#

sorry this is off topic, but can't find a better place to post this.

"Troops' Murder Cases in Iraq Detailed"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-shooting7dec07,0,5176587.story?coll=la-home-headlines

exceprts:

"U.S. military prosecutors alleged Monday that American soldiers shot to death two unarmed Iraqi men in their homes, then tried to cover up their crimes by claiming that the Iraqis had reached for guns."


"Williams cut off the man's plastic handcuffs, laid the rifle near the Iraqi and said aloud to other soldiers in the room, "I feel my life has been threatened.""

|12.7.04 @ 10:16AM|#

FUN: the new heroin that is as bad as crack and just as immoral!

|12.7.04 @ 10:16AM|#

How about in a chat room somewhere, a?

Good piece. The "heroin of so-and-so" will probably become a catch phrase so ubiquitous it will redefine itself in common usage. Just like "Czar" ("Drug Czar", "Traffic Czar") is now a government agency head, "Nazi" is an (overreaching?) controller ("forum Nazi", of course "Soup Nazi"). The moniker "Crisis" is now tacked on to any probem. Relevance, size or scope be damned.

No big loss, though. Splatter these words/phrases over every media/Internet outlet. The louder they cry, the less we will believe. Eventually we'll respond to their outcry with a compelling "meh.", wait and learn what the real issue is, and make a reasoned, informed conclusion not based on fear, hype, and emotion.

|12.7.04 @ 10:31AM|#

The War on Terror is the crack cocaine and/or heroin of wars.

So, I'm curious, if eveything is the new "heroin" or "crack cocaine" doesn't that mean that nothing is?

Just wondering.

|12.7.04 @ 10:56AM|#

The more we discuss addiction the more demystified it becomes decreasing its power to provoke drug war hysteria.
So this is good.

Highway|12.7.04 @ 11:05AM|#

I guess they're so busy warning us about the new 'epidemic' of things that people would want to do to themselves that is 'sweeping the nation' that they don't have any time left to warn us about the epidemic of idiot and invasive government that is threatening to overwhelm us. I think those lawmakers get a high every time they vote yes on something.

Laws: The crack of the future.

|12.7.04 @ 11:19AM|#

First of all, sexual pleasure is much closer to a cocaine high than a heroin high (speaking from experience here). Closer still to meth (the old new crack). I guess I could see an analogy between the post-orgasm bliss and heroin, but I don't think that's the most addictive part of sex/masturbation. Second, I pretty much stopped looking at porn once I started getting involved with women. That's not to say that I stopped masturbating, but there are better things to jerk off to than porn once you've had the real thing.

|12.7.04 @ 11:59AM|#

There is nothing more euphoric than feeling cold, hard cash swell my wallet. I dare say, the feeling is quite similar to China White and a bottle of Shiraz.

Warren|12.7.04 @ 11:59AM|#

WTF Reason staff? Who is this Balko guy and why is he poaching on Jacob's turf. In fact, even while he cites "Saying Yes", the most of the article reiterate does no more than reiterates material found there. In "Saying Yes" Jacob notes how the ongoing practice of promoting a new hysteria by linking it to the current hysteria, has resulted in the logical tautology "heroin is the new heroin"

I did like the bit about "... masturbation, which causes release of the naturally occurring opioids. It does what heroin can't do, in effect.�. Ha! I love it. Tell me, where is the media? Newsprint from coast to coast should be sporting the headline:
JERKING OFF WORSE THAN SHOOTING UP

And for the NY Post;
MORE WHACK THAN SMACK

|12.7.04 @ 12:33PM|#

masturbation, which causes release of the naturally occurring opioids.

Well, if that's true, it means that everyone (besides eunuchs perhaps) has opioids in their bodies from puberty on. Should we all turn ourselves in for possession?

|12.7.04 @ 12:34PM|#

Masturbation: The Anti-Drug.

|12.7.04 @ 1:12PM|#

Highway has it right. According to the esteemed epidemiologist Heywood Jablome, "the arbitrary exercise of power creates in some individuals a mass release of naturally occurring opioids, endorphins, and testosterone, which generate a huge rush, a feeling of elation and euphoria that heroin and crack combined cannot touch. This euphoria is so highly addictive that, once begun, the arbitrary exercise of power simply cannot be stopped voluntarily. Individuals who are so afflicted must have outside assistance to break the cycle of addiction. Sometimes extreme measures are required, as these individuals are in heavy denial, and insist they are only doing it because others have given them a mandate."

|12.7.04 @ 1:27PM|#

New York Post headline:
ADDICTION OUT OF HAND

Larry A|12.7.04 @ 5:11PM|#

"?Pornography really does, unlike other addictions, biologically cause direct release of the most perfect addictive substance," he said. "That is, it causes masturbation, which causes release of the naturally occurring opioids. It does what heroin can't do, in effect.?"

Wouldn't sex release the same "naturally occuring opioids?" And church marriage leads to those "marital relations." Therefore...

|12.7.04 @ 10:08PM|#

"There is nothing more euphoric than feeling cold, hard cash swell my wallet."

Lewis,
Given my lack of concupiscence for filthy lucre, I now understand why god put my wallet in my back pocket and my love muscle in my front pocket.

|12.11.04 @ 2:16AM|#

I await the harsh but benevolent rule of the Nazi Crisis Tzar.

Kevin