Heroin is a powerful analgesic, the legalization of which is sometimes proposed as an answer to the pain of terminal cancer. In this country questions about heroin's medicinal potential have been strongly colored by the aura of illicitness and human degradation that surround it. They have not been decided by a rational determination of its therapeutic utility as an analgesic. Adherence to the Puritan ethic has blinded society to the fact that a drug, including heroin, is a chemical compound only that does not carry any intrinsic moral connotations. Studies conducted in England suggest that for certain types of cancer patients, heroin does have advantages over other narcotic analgesics.
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