Heroin – 2014, Part 2

            A few weeks back I wrote a blog about the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, which was caused by a heroin overdose. And my blog editor – a woman whose opinion I value a great deal – let me know I sounded “pretty harsh.” And I was. I was frustrated that “the news” was making a huge deal out of Hoffman’s tragic death while each day thousands of other men and women OD, a fair number die, and little or no attention is paid to it.

            And I pointed out in the piece that I knew little about the drug subculture. In my sheltered prior life, there were no heroin, or crack, or crystal meth addicts. There was drinking and we all knew the stay-at-home moms with the anti-depressants, but that was it.

            Then I got arrested. I saw young kids – eighteen, nineteen year olds – with track marks up and down their arms and legs. I met thirty year-olds Hep C positive from needle sharing. I saw and smelled guys cooking down crack, dissolving crystal meth, snorting heroin – all this I experienced behind bars. And, I saw a young kid – a heroin junkie – detox.

            It made me realize I knew nothing about drug use. My preconceived notions were all garbage. No one uses – or for that matter drinks excessively – because they enjoy it or they’re happy. No, the scourge of all those chemical enhancers is you use them because you can’t face your life. And soon that crutch, that dulling sensation takes over and destroys you.

            Heroin is rampant on this compound. There’s a young kid, a few beds down from me, who uses at least once a week, maybe twice. Fifty dollars gets you a chapstick cap full of heroin. He snorts it, then drifts off for the next six hours or so. The crazy thing is, he’s been “randomly” urine tested. But, guys in here know how to flush their systems with gallons of water. Unless the test is very sensitive – which these aren’t – you can beat it.

            The young kid gets high – just like he did on the street (that’s what he’s in for). Then, he goes to a weekly NA meeting – part of his “treatment” plan.

            He’s not alone. There are dozens of guys getting high every day here – pills, coke, weed, and heroin. And it keeps coming in. Every few weeks they’ll be an OD scare. They threaten with lockdowns. But, they can’t stop the drugs from coming in; they can’t stop the guys from using.

            Harsh? Maybe I was a little caustic about Mr. Hoffman. But, why don’t we care so much about all the addicts who are out there? Why do we send them – the poor ones at least – to prison? And why can’t we see the true reasons behind drug use?

            I’ve talked to the young kid a couple of times and he just laughs. “I got this,” he’ll say. I somehow think Mr. Hoffman thought the same thing.