its untrue that regular drug users cannot be organ / tissue donors – even if they are unfortunate to have a fatal OD. Corneas, skin, bone, tendons, cartilage are equally valuable to the NHS as internal organs, an OD victim is going to be sliced up anyway for the CSI lot at inquest and this is done at an approved NHS mortuary. The pathologist obviously knows which organs are any good and which ones have given up, So if they are donors the NHS get the good bits whilst they are still in the freezer. Corneas (tissue at the front of the eye) are very valuable as they can prevent other people going blind.
A lot of the 1990s pill OD victims were from from middle class left wing families supportive of the NHS and often were donors (young people are or were encouraged to reigister when they apply for their provisional driving license) and that 3 or 4 other people often benefited from the organs and tissue gave at least some comfort to the bereaved parents,
I admit that currently I have not registered as I was concerned at one point in my life that i might overdo things, keel over, and the NHS might by accident start carving me up before I was properly dead to get the useful bits, but since calming down my lifestyle somewhat and also working for a healthcare organisation I know that they are very careful to not simply assume people are dead (even if they have been riddled through with bullets or been knocked to pieces by the Liverpool Street train) until they are definitely sure this is the case.
