Tales From My Drug Years: Episode 1

So this one night I was Rocky’s shooting cocaine intravenously. The year was probably something like 2002 when this anecdote from my life was born.  If memory serves, and it usually does (more on my eiditic memory later), I had been on binge for a couple of days and then I ran out of coke.  I had the money to buy the coke but it was election time so drugs, in general, were scarce.   It’s always like that in the fall.  But, somehow, some way, I got me some money and was I able to score me some dope.  After I got back from getting the dope I went and got my only rig, the same fucking rig I had been using for probably at least a week because back then that’s what I had to do.  There were none of these fancy-dancy needle exchanges until the heroin junkies started dropping like flies from the fentynal onset.

I remember being angry alot about the lack of anywhere to buy a needle because here’s the deal whether you like it or not does not change the fact that a junkie is going to get high and there’s not a fucking thing in this world you could ever say or do to stop him unless you were a cop and arresting him or you were his murderer.

So, I get to Rocky’s bedroom after returning from making the score  after searching for 20 minutes (more about the weird shit i do when I get high later) for my needle I finally found it.  I dumped some of my powder into a cap or maybe it was a spoon, I actually don’t remember…weird…and then I turned on the bathroom sink and caught the water coming out of the faucet with my left hand cupped.  My right hand, at this point, is holding the needle with the point in the water from the faucet which is filling, as best as it can, my cupped hand.

I begin to draw up the water and just as about 10ml are at the mark on the ruler on the rig, the long part of the syringe which is used to draw the liquid, the plunger,  pops out of the rubber grommet which is what causes the suction.  The reason for this is that I have literally used this needle so many times that the plastic stick part actually destroyed the threading which made the ball holder shaped divet in the rubber grommet too big and the ball on the end of the plunger stick just popped right out.

To say I’ve been here before, many times would be a vast understatement.

 I wasn’t going to dick around with this useless ass broken ass motherfucking needle anymore.  There was a CVS Pharmacy right down the street.  It was one of only two in my city which stayed open 24 hours along with the pharmacy.

I knew what I had to do.  I threw on my shoes and I’m sure a black, long-sleeved top and whatever shoes I owned at the time.  It was always only one pair, whatever currently happened to be on my feet.  I grabbed my keys and off I went to Rite Aid.   No way in hell Rite Aid was gonna sell me a bag of needles but perhaps there was some way I could convince the pharmacist.  Thing is, I was jonesing for this hit so bad that I knew, as I was driving there, I wasn’t fucking taking no for an answer.

I pulled into the parking lot and proably sat there and freaked out a little bit but not much because I knew…I mean I FUCKING KNEW I WAS GONNA LEAVE WITH WHAT I CAME FOR, PERIOD.

I walked into the store and headed straight back to the pharmacy.  It was weird because it was only the pharmacist there working.  There was no tech.  The pharmacist asked how she could help me and I said, “I need a pack of U-100 diabetic syringes”.

The pharmacist then asked for my diabetic card to which I replied I hadn’t one.

The pharmacist looked at me and said, “I’m sorry but without the card I can’t sell you these."

This wasn’t shocking.  I knew she would refuse me.  I had nothing prepared to say, though, so I winged it and here is how it went:  I said, “Ok, well, then I guess I’m gonna go climb into the dumpster on the backside of the parking lot and dig in the trash until I find a needle.  When I find one, I’m going to put it in my arm and get high.  When I come down will probably be about the same time you get off work and when I see you leave I’m going to follow you home so that I know where you live.  Then, I’m going to find everyone in your family and I’M GOING TO FUCK THEM.

The pharmacist replied, “Here, I will sell you this bag but don’t ever come into this store again”.

To this day, I've never been in that store again.