Scientologists push anti-drug propaganda in UK schools

Television is exactly equivalent to heroin.

I readily cede the point that scientology is evil and almost everything Tom Cruise says is psycho wack shit. Clearly they are trying to wedge themselves between poor naive little Joe Sixpack and his doctor, purely for the sake of profiting off the resulting confusion, and that is a terrible thing. But the problem is framing and intention, not raw pharmacological fact. I'm merely trying to point out the importance of that distinction.

In general, the presence or absence of something that could be called "objective truth" is almost completely irrelevant to the question of whether someone's words are helpful or harmful...

anyway, on with the TV watching.

It seems like you're willfully ignoring my point, Omgoleus. Consequently, I hereby cede this discussion to you, as I have important television to watch.

The only difference between oxycodone and heroin is... wait for it... set and setting! It makes a big difference whether you're taking a drug under the supervision of a physician, or under the supervision of dealers and street gangs or whatever. Pharmacologically there's no difference, and there's certainly no physiological reason why one would have medical value and the other wouldn't.

The thing is, it's vastly easier to manufacture heroin illicitly than it would be to make oxycodone, so heroin will always be more likely to be available outside of a medically supervised setting. So in that sense, there is an inherent tendency to a difference in set and setting. But that's different from saying the drugs themselves are different.

What's specious about comparing oxycodone to heroin is that it inherently makes an illicit analogy in kids' mind, when in fact, society agrees that oxycodone additionally has medical value. I hardly call that an "accurate" framing of the picture. "Hey kids, when you're in actual pain and your doctor wants to give you something for it, BEWARE FOR YOU MIGHT END UP JUST LIKE A HEROIN ADDICT!" Which, frankly, you might, but the Scientologists are hardly credible sources on how to navigate pain management, and scaring people off of everything is, again, taking liberties with the truth. It's hardly "spreading accurate information".

Oxycodone is most certainly equivalent to heroin. If anything, the oxycodone high is considerably more euphoric. There's nothing irresponsible about saying that.

Of course, this doesn't change the fact that the Scientologists have dishonorable motivations. But if you want to hold something against them, blame them for recharging Cruise's batteries every night, not for spreading accurate information about drugs.

Saying something as vague and meaningless as equating alcohol and antidepressants with poison, or saying oxycodone is equivalent to heroin, isn't just wrong, it's downright deceitful. If people truly want to help others, and get people to think about their substance use, they should disseminate fact, not opinion.

So? They are right. Alcohol and antidepressants are poison and oxycodone is as strong as heroin. Methadone is just as dangerous and a great number of former heroin addicts have trouble with methadone, too.

All drugs are addictive, all can be bad, and all people like the Scientologists are really doing is making people think harder about what is right for them.