There is nothing on this planet more euphoric than sticking a needle into my vein, watching the blood register like a snake slithering quietly before it strikes its prey, slowly pushing down on the plunger, feeling the warmth moving up into my shoulder, exploding into a head-to-toe rush the instant the white liquid hits my heart. It’s without a doubt, a hundred times more exhilarating than that millisecond right before you explode in a massive orgasm.
I’m in love. Nothing can stop me from getting heroin. I will rob you. I will manipulate you. If my mouth is moving, I am lying. I don’t care who you are or what kind of history we had together. You are nothing to me. Heroin is my god.
But I wasn’t always a scumbag. I was a star athlete in high school. I graduated from a prep school near Boston. My parents were both teachers, and I grew up in the best section of town. We weren’t rich, but I had plenty of food, new clothes, access to my parents’ cars and girlfriends. I was popular too.
Then, the night my father died, Lady Heroin spread her legs and sucked me inside of her. I only took heroin once. But after that night, heroin took me anyplace she wanted to. Nobody could save me.
***
That was 29 years ago.
I beat it. The truth is, the first year sucked. It was like wrestling a black bear. The guilt, the shame, the trails of destruction I left behind me were almost insurmountable.
How did I do it?
It was five words, a simple phrase, perhaps the hardest concept on the planet to grasp: One Day At A Time. I combined education, exercise, meditation and God to accumulate 10,771 days. The days added up to months. The days added up to years. The days added up to decades.
In the summer of 1991, I covered the war in Bosnia and recorded Serbian snipers systematically picking off women and children as they attempted to cross the Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia to fill jugs for drinking water.
That following winter, I witnessed the crimson-red snow on the streets of Sarajevo. But I have never seen anything to compare with the deaths of America’s youth at the hands of heroin.
How did we get here?
I don’t want to beat a dead horse. A July 10, 2016 Los Angeles Times investigative report provided details to prove what I wrote about in a Huffington Post Blog on October 2, 2015. Purdue Pharma, recklessly and without any regard for human life, orchestrated the heroin epidemic with its fraudulent and deceptive marketing of its wonder-drug OxCycontin.
From there, the market was massive and the Mexican cartels capitalized by cutting the cost of a kilo of heroin in half and flooding the streets of America with cheap powerful heroin. When I shot heroin, a bag cost 30 dollars. Today, in some American towns, heroin costs less than a six-pack of beer.
Can we stop the epidemic?
Yes, but the federal government must intervene. Heroin addiction is no longer a moral issue. Heroin use is no longer a black thing or a brown thing. Heroin overdoses are no longer a question of “if.” Now it is a matter of “when.”
Every U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative must unite and clear the way for “on-demand-recovery-centers” in states across this nation. If a heroin addict is dope-sick today and reaches out for help, they must be able to get immediate help. If not, they have only one option — to get high. That means robbing or stealing to acquire heroin.
The jails are filled with heroin addicts like me. The cost to keep us locked up has become a burden on society. The crime rate in cities across America are climbing every month due to the heroin epidemic.
The answer is simple.
From the West Coast to East Coast, from North to South, we must model recovery centers like the W House in Hagerstown, Maryland. There, regardless of ability to pay, female addicts can acquire a bed.
This month, the women at the W House started a Facebook magazine titled, A Life Worth Saving. There they share their stories of recovery and healing.
It is an amazing example of what we can do in America if we collectively make up our minds that all lives matter. As a nation, we must stop the whispering about heroin. We must all pitch in to end the madness.
Need help with substance abuse or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.
#1: misterwhite To: Willie Green (#0)
Yeah. Great analogy. I know what you're talking about. I once wrestled a black bear.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-14 13:15:10 Reply Private Reply
#2: misterwhite To: Willie Green (#0)
The sounds more like the answer is expensive.
Sorry. I've been told that drug use only affects the user. These recovery centers affect my pocketbook. I say let the heroin addicts recover the same way the author did. Or let them die in the street.
I didn't make them do heroin, so I don't feel the least bit responsible. My dad died and I didn't use that as an excuse to do heroin.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-14 13:27:36 Reply Private Reply
#3: Willie Green To: misterwhite (#2)
Willie Green posted on 2016-10-14 13:33:43 Reply Private Reply
#4: ConservingFreedom To: misterwhite (#2)
I agree. But I'd note that heroin criminalization also affects our pocketbooks ... and at least recovery centers are far less likely than criminalization to enrich sociopathic cartels.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-14 13:34:01 Reply Private Reply
#5: misterwhite To: ConservingFreedom (#4)
As does the criminalization of many other activities.
"and at least recovery centers are far less likely than criminalization to enrich sociopathic cartels."
Handing out free heroin would have an even greater negative effect on these sociopathic cartels ... assuming that's the goal ... which it's not.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-14 13:51:03 Reply Private Reply
#6: ConservingFreedom To: misterwhite (#5)
Defunding sociopathic cartels would be a welcome side effect even if not a goal.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-14 13:54:47 Reply Private Reply
#7: nativist nationalist To: misterwhite (#2)
Very good point. Time for the anarcho-libertarian potheads to step up to the plate and take care of it. Perhaps they may discover yet another curative property of marijuana in weaning people off of heroin. I've read ad infinitum on these forums about how it cures everything from cancer to cold feet in bed, so curing heroin addiction would not be stretch.
nativist nationalist posted on 2016-10-14 14:07:31 Reply Private Reply
#8: misterwhite To: ConservingFreedom (#6)
I'm not convinced a B&B for heroin addicts will have any effect on these sociopathic cartels.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-14 14:08:20 Reply Private Reply
#9: ConservingFreedom To: nativist nationalist (#7)
What needs taking care of? As misterwhite said in the post to which you replied, "let the heroin addicts recover the same way the author did. Or let them die in the street."
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-14 14:26:37 Reply Private Reply
#10: ConservingFreedom To: misterwhite (#8)
It would if it reduced the number of heroin addicts - which, to be sure, is an "if".
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-14 14:28:16 Reply Private Reply
#11: A Pole To: Willie Green (#0)
A LIAR !!!
A Pole posted on 2016-10-14 14:59:42 Reply Private Reply
#12: A Pole To: Willie Green, misterwhite (#3)
Prison industry is a big source of jobs and profits, benefits and retirements.
Is that right, Mr Whitey?
A Pole posted on 2016-10-14 17:36:00 Reply Private Reply
#13: misterwhite To: Willie Green (#3)
What percentage of heroin addicts seek treatment? What's their success rate?
Multiply the two together and I bet we're looking at <1%.
Which leaves 99% on the street for the police & lawyers to arrest, prosecute & lock up in jail.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-14 17:49:19 Reply Private Reply
#14: misterwhite To: A Pole (#12)
Yep. And we're gonna need more.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-14 17:50:30 Reply Private Reply
#15: Deckard To: misterwhite, A Pole (#14)
There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt.
Deckard posted on 2016-10-14 18:00:33 Reply Private Reply
#16: Gatlin To: Deckard, misterwhite, A Pole (#15)
The entire quote:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/319903-did-you- really-think-we- want-those-laws-observed-saidGatlin posted on 2016-10-15 09:27:10 Reply Private Reply
#17: misterwhite To: Deckard (#15)
Our prisons are overcrowded and overflowing as it is. State budgets are threatening to go into the red. And I'm supposed to believe that we're inventing ways to get more people in prison?
The criminals in prison are there because of what THEY did. Don't blame the rest of us.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-15 10:09:54 Reply Private Reply
#18: misterwhite To: Deckard (#15)
Seems to me our laws aginst rape, murder, assault, and armed robbery are pretty clear. Meaning you don't know what the f**k you're talking about.
(By the way, the next time you quote from Atlas Shtrugged, cite Atlas Shrugged)
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-15 10:15:13 Reply Private Reply
#19: Deckard To: misterwhite (#18)
I assume most people here know where it originated.
Of course the entire point of the quote goes over your head.
Deckard posted on 2016-10-15 10:34:17 Reply Private Reply
#20: misterwhite To: Deckard (#19)
I understand the quote. I don't understand how you're applying it. Perhaps you can cite an example of a law that "can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted" where we're throwing people into state prisons for violating it.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-15 10:52:30 Reply Private Reply
#21: Deckard To: misterwhite (#20)
Too many laws, too many prisoners
With so many laws, we could all be felons
Too Many Laws Turn Innocents into Criminals
Deckard posted on 2016-10-15 11:57:31 Reply Private Reply
#22: misterwhite To: Deckard (#21)
Now, you may not like those laws. You may even think they're silly. But they are constitutional.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-15 12:06:28 Reply Private Reply
#23: Deckard To: misterwhite (#22)
Typical response.
I'm done trying to educate you.
Deckard posted on 2016-10-15 12:14:22 Reply Private Reply
#24: A Pole To: misterwhite (#17)
OK, are you saying that if the prisons did not cost taxpayers anything, did not provide jobs and profits, or retirement to you guys, you would be as enthusiastic as you are now?
I doubt it.
A Pole posted on 2016-10-15 12:25:39 Reply Private Reply
#25: A Pole To: misterwhite (#22)
Such guys were in SS, very idealistic and law abiding.
Fortunately other Germans were rather lax and often took bribes.
A Pole posted on 2016-10-15 12:41:06 Reply Private Reply
#26: Deckard To: A Pole (#25)
As opposed to the American system of civil asset forfeiture where they just steal your cash and property without ever charging you with a crime.
Deckard posted on 2016-10-15 12:53:57 Reply Private Reply
#27: misterwhite To: A Pole (#24)
If the prisons did not cost taxpayers anything, I'd want to build even more. When career criminals are off the street, crime goes down dramatically.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-15 13:05:47 Reply Private Reply
#28: misterwhite To: A Pole (#25)
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-15 13:12:02 Reply Private Reply