     _precondition(
       hasPointerRepresentation,
       "StaticString should have pointer representation")
-    return UnsafePointer(bitPattern: UInt(_startPtrOrData))!
+    return UnsafePointer(_startPtrOrData)
   }
 
   /// The stored Unicode scalar value.

    utf8CodeUnitCount: Builtin.Word,
    isASCII: Builtin.Int1
  ) {
    // We don't go through UnsafePointer here to make things simpler for alias
    // analysis. A higher-level algorithm may be trying to make sure an
    // unrelated buffer is not accessed or freed.
    self._startPtrOrData = Builtin.ptrtoint_Word(_start)
    self._utf8CodeUnitCount = utf8CodeUnitCount
    self._flags = Bool(isASCII) ? (0x2 as UInt8)._value : (0x0 as UInt8)._value
  }

    _precondition(
      !hasPointerRepresentation,
      "StaticString should have Unicode scalar representation")
    return UnicodeScalar(
      UInt32(UInt(bitPattern: UnsafePointer<Builtin.RawPointer>(_startPtrOrData)))
    )
  }

  /// If `self` stores a pointer to ASCII or UTF-8 code units, the
