Heroin Chic

I've taken all manner of drugs in my long career as a self-indulgent hedonist, but have never even smoked heroin, let alone injected it.

A few years ago, I reckon I was getting through about 3 grams of cocaine a week, then I thought enough was enough - not to mention the amount of money I was spending on it. No matter how broke you are, there always seems to be a way of getting the stuff, if you really want it.

As soon as I became bored with the white stuff, the quality of it went right downhill anyway, so my timing was perfect. All these new-fangled amphetamines began to arrive by the kilo from back-street, Chinese laboratories, and the European dealers began using them to cut the coke into even weaker proportions, making more money as a result. Prior to that, they would cut the stuff with a harmless and inert powder bought from Holland, so the hit would just be weaker. Now - because of the cheap and powerful substitutes, all the coke-heads spend all night grinding their teeth and talking even more bollocks than they used to in the old days.

I once (and once only!) took about 3/4ths of a gram of cheap, base speed by 'accident', over a period of about 2 hours. I didn't sleep for 24 hours, didn't leave the house for 3 days and didn't smile again for a week. Like the old mother was supposed to have said - "That is no way to have fun".

Bath - like every other town these days - has it's fair share of junkies roaming the streets, and every now and then, one of them manages to pull themselves out of the nose-dive, and start to live a slightly more normal life. Most of them eventually just disappear forever, though.

I don't think that I have ever had what they now call an 'addictive personality' when it comes to Class A drugs, but I have obviously got a tendency to habitual behaviour, otherwise I wouldn't still be smoking tobacco. I am - I have decided after careful consideration over the years - not an alcoholic, though I have known many alcoholics over those years of comparative consideration, and most of them drank a lot less than I did.

It's all down to what is happening in your life, and how you handle what is happening - to a certain extent. Also - and also most unfairly - some people have a higher physical resistance to addiction than others. Did you know that (because of varying levels of a certain enzyme) alcohol has SEVEN times the detrimental effect on the organs of women than it does for men? It's not fair, but I am afraid it is true. I have seen 23 year-old girls destroy themselves over a period of one year, simply by drinking about 5 pints of cider a night - about the same as most 70 year old men have been drinking all their lives, who are still walking around - red-faced but reasonably fit.

'Moderation in all things' seems to apply to all things except heroin - as poor Amy Winehouse and her parents have just been forced to publicly acknowledge. At least Amy's death may have put a stop to the stupid use of the invented fashion phrase, 'heroin chic' at last. There is nothing chic about heroin. The whole thing was just a bad joke on the cat-walk which was taken seriously by a handful of serious fashion-victims.