DOSE:	repeated		Cocaine	(powder / crystals)
	repeated		Various
	1.0 g		Methamphetamine	(daily)
	7.0 g		Cannabis	(daily)

BODY WEIGHT:

150 lb

I first smoked a joint, or sipped a stolen beer in 1984 when I was 12 years old. Within a couple years, I was well on my way absorbing into the counter-culture. I had tried coke and taken several trips of acid by this time. I smoked pot daily. I didn't recognize it then, but I know now that I was pretty industrious. I quickly learned to subsidize my habits by exploiting my resources. Because of the nature of my personality, I attracted dope dealers and high-level middlemen; they trusted me quickly, and it was one thing just to have access to what my friends and associates wanted. I could get wholesale quantites of shit and turn over at retail prices, on the 'front', or credited. I made zero money and stayed ridiculously high on multiple substances, as a way of life. For a long time I assumed all fifteen year olds had this worldview.

Although pot has always been my main drug of choice, I even managed to quit cigarettes - weed is now my cigarettes, several times a day, I showed early on to have a nonchalant attitude to the most addictive epidemics in recent years, crack and I.V. drugs in general. I've been in this life too long to judge anyone's substance or system of delivery, trust me. Its poor customer service as well, I've learned over the years! I tried crack several times, when it was making its grand entrance in the 80's. I thought the high was okay, but like powdered coke, I could pretty much take it or leave it. No, I didn't get strung out but my buddies did, and smoked most of our shit, leaving me to face the gangbangers who supplied us. I fled to Las Vegas.

As for I.V. drug use, I had a more interesting experience, or lack of one, rather. You must understand, in the world I grew up in, most people didn't do 'lines' anymore, they were long-term addicts and dealers. Most of the people who did coke and speed in my early 'comin' up' years, shot it. Fired it, banged it, ran it - I've heard (and use) many slang names. From the very beginning, I have had every opportunity to inject drugs - clean needles, trusted and expert friends offering to fix me, etc - and continue to have that option right to this present day. My peers, both socially and in business, which the lines blur in my world, have all 'graduated' to shooting, and I usually let them do it right in front of me. But, for some reason - I'm just not interested. I.V., as a system of delivery seemed too clinical to me; too high maintenance. I was a smoker!

A dope dealer with an aversion to freebase coke or bangin'?! I coulda made a million. I shoulda made a living. I actually don't remember making anything, except an ass out of myself on many occasions! I got by. I supported myself, on my own, a teenaged kid.
I learned alot of lessons, met alot of interesting people (to say the least!) and traveled to cities like Miami, New Orleans, Savannah, and San Antonio, to name a few. I also wandered out West, and it was in Phoenix in 1989, that I first tried meth.

I had an extensive history with cocaine by this time, but for some reason I had never snorted a line of speed up my nose. All the bikers I grew up around injected speed - it just wasnt presented to me on a mirror with a straw. I showed in Arizona and asked the locals what was happening. Meth, or gofast as we called it then, you'll have the cleanest house on the block! I bought a half-gram for $40 and that was the beginning of the end. I don't know what else to call it. Before those days, I never thought about or faced my own mortality - my death, as much as these last thirteen years I have used meth.

I have bought, sold, and used dope as a career, especially pot and meth, and should have something to show for it. I am beyond destitute - in more ways than I can describe here. I am not even respected in business circles anymore, other than I have the unique distinction of never doing serious time. Knock on wood.

At least I don't snort lines anymore. Your nasal cavities can get really fucked up, folks. Ever see one of us old school with their nose decayed? It aint pretty - and for some reason, I recall seeing more women with that condition than men. I dunno why.

Smoking has its place in ancient rituals - dating back to dawn of time. I advocate the moderate smoking of cannabis - its good for stress, nausea and increased appetite. Hemp, the stalk in which cannabis buds from, is great for foods, fuels and fibers.

Now, as for smoking coke and meth - AKA crack and crystal, or 'ice' I must warn that there is no moderate use possible. Go ahead, bad ass, talk shit about me and shake your head. I have bet a whole career on the repetitive, consistent use of the dope fiend. I have gambled my life, as well. I feel I'm losing the bet. I have a strange premonition that I won't live to be 31 next May, one way or another.

Exp Year: 2002	ExpID: 15295
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Nov 8, 2007	Views: 12,042
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Various (136), Cocaine (13), Methamphetamine (37) : Not Applicable (38), Addiction & Habituation (10), Retrospective / Summary (11)