Comments on: Shaikh’s death: how many would 4kg of heroin really kill?

By: draust

draust — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:59:19 +0000

Re. the adverse effects of the way illegal drugs are sold and used, one of our pathology lecturers (a man who is such a natural comic performer that he obviously missed his alternative calling as a stand-up) gives a well-attended medical student lecture each year on Deep Vein Thrombosis. This always includes a little bit where he mentions the different ways in which injecting illicit drugs can cause thrombi of various kinds. One that always elicits gasps of horror from the students is the bit where he invites them to consider a heroin addict shooting up in a cubicle in the pub toilets and asks them:

“So… where do you think the water comes from…? …and what sort of things do you think might be in it?”

By: Edwin Stratton

Edwin Stratton — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:40:47 +0000

Shaikh was executed at the Chinese government’s belief that drug smuggling is murder by extension, and so for the protection of Chinese citizens such criminals must be harshly punished. It is impossible to take the Chinese government’s ‘concern’ for the lives of Chinese citizens impacted by drug addiction seriously while the directors of the China National Tobacco Corp are respectable members of society.

China National Tobacco Corp deals tobacco to one-in-three of the world’s cigarette smokers. This corporation services the addictions of 350 million Chinese people with a product which will kill more than 150 million of them. If the Chinese government were true to its word about needing to protect its citizens from drug-related health problems, addiction and death then we would surely see the directors of the national cigarette conglomerate on death row. However, the ‘once-removed murderers’ of the China National Tobacco Corp not only remain unpunished for the undoubted lethal impact of their drugs, but are rewarded as captains of industry.

This double-standard fatally undermines the credibility of both the Chinese and the UK’s drug regimes; both country’s policies are constructed over this central hypocrisy.

Some drug-users with interests in equally-harmful drugs are more equal than others. Users and traders of certain potentially-dangerous drugs face trial and execution, while other users and traders of certain *other* potentially-dangerous drugs enjoy full rights of possession and commerce over *their* dangerous drugs, and even benefit from state-subsidised addiction.

By: northerndoctor

northerndoctor — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:13:46 +0000

Yes, absolutely fair point and well made. The mortality risk is almost all attributable to the illegality and the illicit nature of the use. I didn’t go into it as this story is something of a ‘perfect storm’ when it comes to controversial issues – death penalty, drugs trade, mental health issues, China and human rights, and even the Afghan war have been dragged in.

You mention the Swiss heroin clinics – but I am not sure you mean ‘shooting galleries’ or the use of IV heroin in a small group of treatment-resistance users. There weren’t any deaths in the recent NAOMI study looking at IV heroin but there were some fairly significant adverse effects including convulsions and OD. While the clinical setting was obviously able to manage them and there were no deaths the use of heroin even in that setting isn’t completely without risk. However, I still agree with your main point.

By: Steve Rolles

Steve Rolles — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:11:40 +0000

This is a well observed and important point but you omit to mention that the vast majority of heroin mortality risk is associated with the drugs illegality; unknown strength and purity contributing to overdose risk and infection (note the recent anthrax deaths in the UK), with marginal unhygenic/unsupervised using environments and the high risk behaviours they promote (sharing etc) compounding the problem and maximising risks.

Illustrating the point is the fact that no one has ever died of an overdose in a swiss-style supervised heroin clinic, nor has anyone received anthrax infected heroin or contracted blood bourne diseases through sharing and dirty needles. In such scenarios (supervised use and pharmaceutical supply) heroin related mortality falls to near zero, indeed prescribed heroin users have the same life expectancy as non users.

There is nothing new in drug war propaganda twisting statistics, and whilst the murderous Chinese need it more than most, we play much the same games here. See here: http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2007/11/transform-commentry-in-british-medical.html