Newsgroups: alt.slack,alt.drugs
Subject: When the conversation turned to drugs...


Conversation at work turns to the subject of drugs and how much they suck.
I nodded and sat back in my chair, waiting for the flood of sure-fire
hypocrisy. I wasn't disappointed.

I guess because of my age they zeroed right in on good ol' Kurt Cobain and
his "problems with heroin". I didn't want to pop their bubble just then,
but I just get all snickery when people start talking about his alleged
spoeksmanship for the X-gen or whatever. Kurt himself didn't buy it when he
was still breathing, from what I've heard. But the line of dialogue (or is
that monologue?) that really made me wanna fwow up was something like: "How
stupid do you have to be to get hooked on something like heroin?"

How stupid indeed? I don't know, sir, maybe you should ask Charlie Parker
or Dwayne Goettel or the Elizabethian "opium-eaters", how stupid you have
to be to turn to drugs. No, you don't understand it in terms of stupidity,
because stupid has nothing to do with it. DESPERATE has everything to do
with it, and the things we do in this life in the name of despair tend to
far outstrip a lot of our other efforts.

Okay -- I can see how someone would come up with an adjective like
"stupid". Most of us are full aware of the negative effects of drugs, but
somehow when it comes down to a bottle in front of us or a needle making
the difference between agony now and a little alleviation of the agony --
in a situation like that, it comes down to a simple little question:
"Wouldn't you?" Oh, yeah, you would. You bet your sorry little ass you
would.

I used to think alcoholism was one of those things that simply couldn't
happen in my case, 'cause I don't even like the way most drinks tastes. Now
I know that it is possible to develop a taste for damn near anything, when
it means even the tiniest sense of freedom from your feelings. I do drink,
but not much. For a reason.

So as the conversation turned to scorn and disgust for all those "stupid
people" on drugs, I nodded and turned away. He had his own problem of
stupidity to contend with, apparently.