| View Larger Image | The Heroin User's Handbook | Paperbackby Francis, Ph.D. Moraes (Author)
| List Price: | $19.95 | |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Loompanics Unlimited | | Page Count: | 187 Pages | | Publication Date: | July 30, 2004 | | Sales Rank: | 751,592st |
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 8 reviews)
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Heroin Users Helpguide by Todd DeFuedis (Boston, MA)  4 Stars
July 16, 2009
I found this because it flowed and made it easy to understand.Now I get a lot better result and before its hard to explain but its easy to understand now.
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Borderline Illegal by dF  1 Stars
June 18, 2009
A book praising heroin and instructing its readers in how to use heroin, how to purify heroin, etc. I'm surprised Amazon is willing to sell this kind of thing.
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Brilliantly refutes our society's demonization AND exaggeration of heroin by Hedonist  5 Stars
August 13, 2007
Francis Moraes, Ph.D is a hero in this miserable era of anti-heroin propaganda and the desecration of the American populace's right to put what they want in their bodies. This book offers a huge slice of reality about heroin. It is probably the ONLY source of media (counting websites, films, lyrics, etc.) that does so (beyond the author's now-defunct website). Here are a few of the many points that Dr. Moraes elucidates for the 99.99999% of the ignorant populace, smashing the hegemonic norms reified by countless forms of propaganda:
1. There ARE functional junkies. Just because John Q. Drone only hears about the 'evil heroin-crazed murderers' on the news (bwahahaha...crazed how? Snoring too loud?) doesn't mean that there aren't many professionals with their lives under control who enjoy heroin the way many Americans enjoy cigarettes. The only difference is that heroin can't give you cancer...but can land you in a lot of legal trouble.
2. There ARE casual heroin users, just as there are casual drinkers. Heroin is an addictive drug, but so is alcohol. You don't see our society stating that anyone who has a beer after work is a 'substance abuser' do you?
3. The demonization of heroin is a discursive occurrence; not the pinnacle of society's search for Good and Bad chemicals. During the 1900s, upper-class ladies had heroin habits, during Prohibition, alcohol was illegal. While the powers that be would like its pawns to believe that heroin has always been considered Evil and alcohol always society's Drug of Choice, this is not so...nor should it ever be.
4. Heroin is NOT the smack in the head that the world believes it is. To paraphrase the book, pot users, for instance, are most disappointed with heroin's effects, for the gentle sense of well-being and evaporation of all intense negative emotions caused by heroin is a far cry from the sensory alterations and downright wacky feelings caused by the smelly weed. In other words, a heroin user is a happier, calmer, and perhaps drowsier version of a sober individual; a pot user is a laughing idiot who may be incapable of performing certain tasks that require heavy abstract thinking and higher brain function. In addition, heroin--unlike alcohol and cocaine--makes people less violent and argumentative than they are while sober: "A society of heroin addicts may not be a more productive one, but it would be a less violent one."
5. The author also gets it right when it comes to the downside of heroin addiction! The majority of books exaggerate the effects of heroin ("a full body orgasm--don't even try it once, it's so good!") but also downplay the miseries of withdrawal ("It's just like a mild flu"). This book is the only one I have ever read that is ACCURATE on how horrible withdrawal can be, from the severe depression to the constant vomiting to the relentless insomnia, boredom, shivering, sweating, body aches, etc. This book is incredible at showing not only how heroin is unfairly demonized, but also how the withdrawal from heroin has been unfairly downplayed.
6. Finally, the author accurately represents the political truths: "Victorian England has the homosexuals, Hitler had the Jews, and modern America has the drug users." Or, in the last few years of marijuana acceptance, I would say that heroin users have become even more targeted. When reading the chapters on law (en)forcement and the court-enforced churchgoing that is Narcotics Anonymous (because 'your higher power can be the doorknob' this isn't a violation of church and state, huh?), I kept feeling that I was talking to a friend who understood and agreed with me about the politics regarding drug use. I have never felt like this before except while talking to my partner.
I am so glad that I am not alone, and that someone has written a book that has pretty much echoed my own (accurate) views on this drug. Now if only the website could be revived...or that more intellectuals who have experiences with and accurate views of opiates could get out of the closet and try to change this very messed-up 'zero tolerance' society. Functional junkies, intelligent heroin users, former opiate aficianados and even undermedicated pain patients all need society's attitudes to change.
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The perfect guide for the functioning heroin addict by Bachelier (Ile de France) 4 Stars
June 15, 2007
Far too often disinformation couched in florid rhetoric intended to advance a moral preference couched as a universal ethic pollutes solid medical advice.
Francis Moreas "Heroin: A Users Handbook" defeats myths and details real medical and chemical information and advice, often with a near clinical narrative tone.
The straightforward tone is what is most welcome: neither alarmist, flinching from reality, nor governmentese, Moreas offers the Strait Dope in an informed journalistic style that never descends to a Gonzo-Hippie or Libertarian screed. This is exactly the kind of book you want for answers.
On the legal side....while Moreas offers an excellent overview with welcome detail, my assessment is to remain more cautious in assuming this work covers all on the intersection of heroin use and the legal and regulatory system where the reader is located. While the Federal schedule of narcotics is well-known and easily reviewed, each state in the U.S.A. has sovereignty and distinctions in how they classify and treat various chemicals. The international legal dimensions of heroin use are far too complex for this slender volume.
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As Impartial as is Possible 5 Stars
July 04, 2003
This user's guide is a well researched impartial look at all the aspects of heroin use and its intersection with areas of real life. The author displays great erudition in the areas of history, addiction, and chemistry. And knowledge of heroin use and law enforcement is informed by real world knowledge. He basically says this is Heroin, good and bad, and its up to you to decide how you want to live your life. Ultimately everyone has basic ideas about freedom, reality, law, and life that color their opinion. But I believe this author strains to be as impartial as a person can. He certainly succeeds in taking all of the glamour out of heroin. Also he shows how basic prejudices we associate with drugs, and heroin in particular, are colored by the times and society we live in. For this reason, the book is an excellent all around look at drug use, society and reality in general.I also recommend the author's other book, "The Little Book of Heroin" which has much of the same information.
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SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| The Little Book of Heroin
by Ph.D. Francis Moreas (Author), Francis Moreas (Author)
Many people believe that everyone who uses heroin is addicted. In fact, this is true of only about 20 percent of heroin users. By clearing up common misconceptions like these, this book provides information that can save the lives of people using the drug. The author recounts heroin's history, details its chemistry, tells what users need to know to avoid addiction, and demystifies the life of a user: from buying to administering to detoxing and staying clean.
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| Opium (Little Books (Ronin Publishing))
by Ph.D. Francis Moraes (Author), Debra Kita (Author)
Though few challenge the efficacy of opium as a pain reliever during its 7,000-year history, today it is feared more than revered. This book reviews its storied history and pharmacology in nontechnical terms, providing useful "harm reduction" information for those experimenting with the drug or its derivatives.
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| Opium Poppy Garden The Way of a Chinese Grower
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| Oxy
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OXY stands for OxyCodone (narcotic agonist) easily created from Garden Poppies and varieties of Oriental Poppies. United States consumes 90% of the world¹s supply of oxycodone, placing a strain on the essential precursor (thebaine) of oxycodone & naltrexone; narcotic antagonist. Many countries have considered increasing the cultivation of Oriental Poppies in the event of terrorist attack, meteor strike, plague, drought or other natural disaster. Hundreds of Papaver species/alkaloids described...
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