Only on Slashdot would some one compare heroin to alcohol and tobacco.
Hardly - I guess you haven't actually participated in much arguments around these things.
Comparisons between these three are sometimes made by medical professionals. I would include at least meth though, but heroin, alcohol and tobacco are quite often referred to as the top hard drugs.
Now tobacco has at least the same addiction potential as heroin. And if talking of purely pharmaceutical effects of the substances, tobacco far outweighs heroin. It also seems less people seem able to quit tobacco than heroin. So even if we count the health effects of heroin that have more to do with it's legal status and poverty, tobacco could still have more chance of killing you.
Alcohol - not potentially as addictive but certainly, if you get addicted to it, far more damaging to your mental and physical health than heroin ever could be. Heck, some former addicts (and I've even known some) are in better shape after years of daily use than former alcoholics, who have the same length of use behind them - for one reason because alcohol is *neurotoxic*. It's toxic for your brain, and it's toxic for your organs.
Heroin isn't. That can't be said for all opioids, in fact there are some that are very toxic to your body, but mostly the commonly used ones are not. Read into it, you may find it surprising.
The difference is that you can use alcohol and not be addicted.
You can use any drug and not be addicted. Yes, even heroin, though I would not suggest to try your luck. But yes, the addiction potential of alcohol, for most people, is much lower than for heroin.
Tobacco while really bad does not seem to cause health issues as quickly as heroin.
True. It will most likely of these three cause addiction though and it most likely will kill you if you get addicted to it (provided you don't die on something else before).
Those people in country (countries?) - was it Switzerland? - in the "treatment" where pure heroin is given freely to addicts who have failed rehab, are not likely to die because of their habit anymore (now that they are out of need for street heroin, make money - mostly illegally - to finance their habit and can actually be beneficial, not just cost to society).
Because it's not heroin, the substance itself, that causes their health problems and most of their inability to cope with normal life.
In fact that program started out of a test on "hopeless cases", group of heroinists who had failed enough rehab attempts to be categorized "hopeless". The program surprisingly showed that not only, as expected, the people didn't have to finance their habit with crimes and their health improved, but also many of them got hang of their lives, got a job, etc. - and even, after all this improvement, volunteered for rehab - which surprisingly many of these hopeless people now succeeded in. Look into it.
I don't drink or smoke and even I can see a world of difference between them.
There is a world of differences - they are mostly different than most average people who haven't studied the subject think.
BTW Drunks do often get thrown in jail for any number of reasons. Drug users often get off with community service and drug treatment programs for first offenses.
Whether you think that drunks should get the same treatment as "druggies" (which they too in fact are) or the other way around, that's a problem with ill designed system.