The Heroin User's Handbook [Paperback]

Francis Moraes (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 187 pages
• Publisher: Loompanics Unlimited (July 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559502169
• ISBN-13: 978-1559502160
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,680,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Impartial as is Possible, July 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Heroin User's Handbook (Paperback)

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.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Impartial as is Possible, July 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Heroin User's Handbook (Paperback)

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.

30 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Heroin User's Perspective, February 22, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Heroin User's Handbook (Paperback)

Somewhat interesting, but pretty slanted as opposed to unbiased. On the one hand claims Heroin users are stereotyped, on the other hand he stereotypes anyone not a Heroin user. People are people and individuals, not made from a mold.

On the positive side, he paints a good picture of the upside and downside of using Heroin, and the dangers, through a lengthy description of how to literally obtain and use Heroin.

His info on the number of deaths associated with Heroin overdose is misleading. He states no more than 100 a year, then later says most overdose deaths are misinterpreted, and poorly investigated, that the cause of death is actually something other than Heroin, but he can't explain it.

Dying from Heroin use can be from Heroin, it's metabolite Morphine, the type of cut/dilutant, disease, etc. Doesn't matter if it was the actual drug. If you didn't use it, it wouldn't have happened. Even so, going by Heroin overdose alone, Los Angeles County has more than 100 Heroin overdose deaths in one year, let alone the entire country. He also left out how many people are near death from Heroin overdose, but are saved my paramedics and Narcan.

This is his perspective based on his experience. It is but one perspective, there are others that he dismisses as prejudice, social taboos, anti-drug warriors, and many other excuses.

Reading it knowing it is but one perspective, it's worth reading. But it's worth examining other perspectives, particularly those of the medical personnel, especially in Free Clinics worldwide, especially the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic in San Francisco.