Heroin and Alcohol: The Hypocrisy of Our Policy of Prohibition of Opium

Heroin and Alcohol: One is a deadly, brain-rotting, violence-inducing poison. The other comes from a seed pod. If you’re a regular visitor of antiprohibit.org, you’ll know that we believe that drug prohibition isn’t compatible with American ideals. The most obvious of which are self-determinism, manifest destiny, personal liberty, bodily autonomy, and privacy. It has become evident, however, that the state of being “incompatible with our ideals” isn’t sufficient for Americans to reject a policy; drug prohibition has been the status quo in the United States for over 100 years, and the results are more dangerous, available and potent drugs.

If we’re going to challenge this harmful policy (and it is harmful – you can read about the cost to society here (https://antiprohibit.org/the-human-cost-of-prohibition/), we’ll have to challenge it on other pillars. Thank goodness for the United States Constitution.  This living document outlines the venue for defeating prohibition, and it does so both explicitly and implicitly. Our constitution lays out two specific freedoms that,  in this author’s opinion, the prohibition of naturally occurring substances either implicitly or explicitly violates:

The Pursuit of Happiness

…and…

Freedom of Religion


How Drug Prohibition Explicitly Violates Our Right to the Pursuit of Happiness

This one is somewhat obvious. If you don’t understand that what makes different people happy changes from person to person, nothing I can say here will change that. Instead, I will appeal to your logical side by contrasting alcohol with other drugs.  Prohibiting alcohol consumption in the 1920s infringed on their right to the pursuit of happiness, and drug prohibition today is no different. “Alcohol is a drug” is a common refrain heard by everyone who has any experience with addiction and recovery. You won’t get an argument here. Alcohol is a drug. If alcohol use differs from other drugs, it’s only in the absolute scale of its destructive capacity. For those who claim that alcohol is “more natural” than narcotics, I would point them to two specific drugs: cannabis and opium.

To understand how hypocritical the concept of opium prohibition is, we first have to understand the ease with which it is produced. 

Let’s review the processes involved in the cultivation and preparation of both opium and cannabis and then compare them to that of alcohol.



Cannabis Preparation:

• Cultivation – Germinate seeds, provide water, light, and nutrients, then manage until maturity.
• Harvesting – Cut plants at peak ripeness and dry in a controlled environment.
• Drying – Store dried buds in airtight containers, burping periodically for proper aging.

Opium Cultivation:

• Cultivation – Sow seeds, provide water, light, and nutrients, then manage growth until maturity.
• Harvesting – Lance mature pods and collect raw latex as it oozes out.
• Drying – Allow latex to dry before scraping and storing.
• Further Processing – Depending on the desired product, raw opium may be mixed with pickling lime (or another base)  to extract the morphine, which may then be used in its pure form, or can be further refined by being boiled in glacial acetic acid (the same acid that’s used in vinegar) to produce morphine diacetate (heroin).

The similarities are immediately obvious. Both are plants. Both need to be grown, harvested, and dried before consumption. Both have a science behind the preparation and consumption of their respective compounds. Cannabis is socially acceptable in all areas of the United States, and outright legal in some. The list of states that have legalized cannabis consumption, either for medicinal or recreational purposes is always growing. Opium, on the other hand, enjoys none of the societal acceptance, and all of its ire. Despite being nearly identical in the stages of production, users of the “joy plant” are routinely stigmatized along with the drug itself. This seems doubly absurd because opium and its primary derivatives (morphine and codeine*) are the gold standard of the medical world’s pain management toolbox. Morphine is so effective at pain management that it is the benchmark against which all other narcotic analgesics are measured.

Now, let’s look at what’s involved in the production of the most socially acceptable drug in human history: alcohol.

Alcohol Preparation:

• Raw Material Selection – Choose a fermentable sugar source: grains (beer/whiskey), fruits (wine/brandy), or potatoes (vodka).
• Mashing & Cooking – Grind grains, mix with water, and heat to convert starches into fermentable sugars.
• Fermentation – Add yeast to the mash, let it consume sugars, and produce alcohol over days or weeks while monitoring temperature and pH.
• Distillation (For Spirits) – Heat fermented liquid, taking advantage of alcohol’s lower boiling point, to separate alcohol from the water and other impurities, often multiple times, using specialized stills. Steam is collected in a hood and passed through cooled pipes to condense it.
• Aging (For Some Alcohols) – Store in barrels for months or years to develop flavor, absorbing compounds from wood.
• Filtering & Proofing – Remove unwanted byproducts and dilute with water to reach the desired alcohol content.
• Bottling & Packaging – Carefully seal and label bottles for distribution and sale, often with governmental oversight.

It becomes immediately apparent to anyone upon first glance that the production of alcohol, particularly spirits, is more complex than that of even one of the most stigmatized drugs in history: heroin. “Heroin” or more accurately, morphine diacetate, is one of the most well-understood and studied narcotics.

Now, let’s compare and contrast the effects of alcohol and opiates. 

Effects on the Body

• Alcohol: A neurotoxic depressant that impairs motor function, slows reaction time, and damages nearly every organ over time. Chronic use leads to liver cirrhosis, heart disease, and brain shrinkage.
• Opiates: A central nervous system depressant that relieves pain and induces euphoria. Overuse leads to dependence, but it doesn’t destroy organ tissue or cognitive function like alcohol.

Overdose Potential

• Alcohol: A fatal dose is shockingly easy to reach— alcohol is a poison (that’s why it’s used to sterilize tools and injection sites), which leads to respiratory failure or choking on vomit. No reversal agent exists – once ingested and absorbed into the bloodstream, this toxic chemical will do its work: destroy tissue.
• Opiates: Dangerous in high doses, but unlike alcohol, overdose can be reversed with naloxone, making it preventable when harm reduction is in place.

Addiction & Withdrawal

• Alcohol: One of the only drugs under whose influence withdrawal can kill you via seizures or delirium tremens (DTs). Yet, it’s normalized to the point where alcoholics are told to “drink responsibly.”
• Opiates: Withdrawal, while uncomfortable, is rarely fatal. In those rare cases, it’s a contributing factor – never the direct cause of death.  It’s treated as a moral failing rather than a medical condition, despite being physically less dangerous than alcohol withdrawal.

Social Consequences

• Alcohol: A major contributor to violent crime, including domestic abuse, assault, and drunk driving deaths. Despite this, it’s glorified in the media, with ads featuring happy families and sports heroes.
• Opiates: Mostly affects the user rather than society at large, yet opiate users are stigmatized, and their behavior criminalized while alcoholics are given sympathy.

Legality & Perception

• Alcohol: Widely available, taxed, and celebrated despite its staggering death toll. Causes approximately 140,000 deaths per year in the U.S. alone.
• Opiates: Demonized and criminalized, even though many users are patients seeking pain relief. The War on Drugs ensures those suffering turn to more dangerous alternatives.*

Again, the comparative differences appear to paint alcohol as the more destructive drug.  In terms of absolute numbers, alcohol is the reigning champion of death, societal cost, and family destruction. Heroin is just a rookie, posting rookie numbers.

How Drug Prohibition Implicitly Violates Our Religious Freedoms:

I mentioned at the beginning of this article that drug prohibition infringes upon our rights to the “freedom of religion,” particularly if you’re a Christian, Jew, or Muslim. Genesis 1:29 states that God gave us “every seed-bearing plant.”

The entire quote is:

“I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

-God

I have gotten into philosophical debates about the definition of “food”, or whether or not the author meant it literally or figuratively.

However, because much of the Bible isn’t taken literally (such as the creation myths) if one decides to go that route, they must admit that they are being arbitrary with their allowance of when it’s appropriate to take the bible literally, and when it’s acceptable to take it figuratively. People can’t have it both ways at once: either the Bible is open to interpretation, or it’s not.

Who decides if certain passages are meant literally? How do they decide when it’s appropriate or not?

I contend that the founding fathers didn’t want that role to be occupied by the state.  I further contend that because the Christian, Judaic, and Islamic religions all include the book of Genesis to some degree (Islamic tradition doesn’t quote Genesis verbatim, but borrows heavily from it), prohibiting the cultivation and use of these plants, for whatever personal purpose, is a violation of our religious freedoms. 

And I thought church was going to be boring.