junkie

Thierry Colombie The idea of overseas travel for its own sake had never been a priority for me which shows what a pedestrian mind I must have. Going overseas was something that would only ever come after I had taken a good hard look at the continent I was born on. Not out of national pride by any stretch but probably out of an awareness of how much this place has to offer anyone who is fascinated by different forms of animal and plant life, different and wonderful landscapes and different styles of humanity.

It seems to me that every junky must enjoy some aspects of the withdrawal syndrome. I know i do even though the avoidance of acute withdrawal is what will drive me usually, in the end to use again. So what is there to enjoy about hanging out you all cry. Something, I am sure otherwise you would stop and recoil from the stuff forever.

I got some Valium from a friend, 10x5g and took 10mg that night and the next day my friend brought more so now it's up to 20mg i took yesterday, a total of 30mg over 2 days which isn't a lot compared with my past record. After at least 3 months without taking more than the odd 10mg i feel as if i've taken more than necessary and even think perhaps i took too much. The 8+ hours of uninterrupted sleep and the extra few hours spent dozing were welcome but the time it takes to really get up again is running into more than 2 hours now, i hope the TuoCha helps.

Saturday morning. And the doc is making two holes in my right leg just below the knee, with a device that takes a straw sized core of flesh about a centimetre long. I could watch one be schlopped out, but not both.

Inside the jail the most widely consumed drug is of course tobacco. Some people smoke KrongThip which are Thai tailormades and better than their Australian equivalent but still hopelessly polluted. Boorlee Pamar are Burmese cigars which are very cheap since they don't pay tax to the Thai Tobacco Monopoly. They also last a long time and are useful currency like KrongThip. What I like most is yassoor TaiYai. The locally grown tobacco. It is very nice quality and costs $2A for a pack the size of a house brick. Drum tobacco costs $8A.

As the usage tracker on this site develops it is good fun seeing the various drugs we use and their frequency being plotted in a table. The biggest shame for me is that I couldn't have started doing this when I started taking drugs. From the days of my youth I have been of the opinion that my drug taking was something of a research assignment although at the time I seriously doubt if anyoune could have convinced me it was ok to publish anything pre-mortem. What a wasted youth not in terms of the wastage caused by taking drugs so much as that caused by taking drugs in a virtual vacuum.

The Hmong are a mountain people who made it down to Lao sometime over the past 500-1000 years I suppose and more recently have made their way across the Mekong River into Thailand because their land and its resources are coveted by the Pathet Lao government. They are on the endangered species list and Thailand has been known to show some kindness to endangered species i can tell you. I was staying in ChaengSaen a former walled town with one side on the river and the others surrounded by a wall of clay or terra cotta bricks which has largely disappeared by now.

A huge part of our conscious thought is devoted to making ourselves known or understood at least by others, an equally huge part is devoted to knowing what others may know or at least think of us. Casual aquaintances such as neighbours who have no prior knowledge of us become blank slates which are only too impressionable when they have nothing better to think about than the racket the crows make in the morning. What juicy trifles do their minds concoct out of an excentric neighbour.

I have a personal line-in-the-sand - well, that's not a good descriptor, as I often cross it, perhaps it should be called a warning sign, or an alarm bell. Whatever you call it, I know to take stock when I find myself scoring at lunch time.
And last week, during the hell of Christmas, I found myself doing this not once, but twice in a row. I should point out that I only have a thirty minute lunch hour, and I usually score...around Greenslopes, which is a twenty minute drive from work. So just committing to score is committing to getting back late from lunch.

As from yesterday morning, I am now paying $38.50 per week for my methadone (brand:Biodone) dose. In one day it went from $28.50 per week to $38.50. We used to receive a discount for paying on a weekly basis, this has been deleted also. The explanation given was that the people receiving tablets (presumably bupe) could not receive the same discount, so it was not fair to them.
If there are any bupe users out there, perhaps they can explain this thinking?