Is Alcohol More Dangerous Than Smack?

A new report out today states that alcohol does more damage to society than heroin, so we spoke to someone who’s addicted to both.

Vice: How much experience with smack and booze have you had?
Unnamed mate: Booze, since forever and I’ve been addicted to heroin, on and off, since I was 19.

And you’re 23 now, yeah?
Yeah.

I suppose it’s kind of obvious how people get into alcohol, but what pushed you towards the harder stuff?
It was just the crowd I was in when I was younger. We took pills too soon, really. We were just 13 but ended up taking some when we ran into an older crowd of kids we knew just wandering the streets one night. I think even if we’d moved from weed to pills a couple of years later we’d have lost interest in it, because at 17, 18 that’s the age people start thinking about university or whatever it is they want to do after they’ve left school and they tend to get preoccupied with that.

OK. The report out today claims to have measured the harm caused by each drug to both the user and society as a whole. In your experience, what’s done you the most damage?
Heroin. Heroin without a doubt. Neither have done me much good, of course. When you’re drinking day-to-day it’ll fuck you up, do all sorts of nasty shit to your guts in particular. Most of the time my arsehole feels like sandpaper. Heroin hasn’t exactly helped me out though, I don’t exactly have an awesome career.

Have you got any funny stories about taking smack?
Not really. It’s not a very funny drug. I’ve got a lot of funny stories about drinking though, but telling funny drinking stories isn’t a great look.

OK. How about harm to other people, then?
I guess some people rob other people to get money. I once stole money off a girlfriend for it. Amazingly we’re not together anymore.

The report reckoned heroin use involved more ‘acquisitive crime’ than any other drug on the list.
OK, it’s not an exact science, but I can see that. I guess with booze it’s more likely to be lads beating each other up in the street. That’s the thing with drinking. In a medium-sized town, like where I’m from, what you’re essentially seeing is a few thousand people who’ve been working all week put together in rooms so loud that communication is impossible, then fed ridiculous amounts of angry lager. It’s not a recipe for calm, is it?

No, it’s not. At least they’re all in it together though.
That’s true. Society might be worse off for alcohol, but I suppose at least we’re all getting worse together.