Cocaine

Ben: Diary Of A Heroin Addict

I happened upon this while looking through the shows online at the ABC. Something about the concept dragged me in; Ben has been a heroin addict/poly drug abuser for over ten years, has got a handycam and decides to film as faithful a representation of his life on video as circumstances will allow.

 

The Hard Drug Chronicles

Don't be misled by the product information, this book is a collection of short stories by an extensive list of contributors. As well as being one of the contributors Jerry Stahl is one of five editors.

 

The book is an extensive volume of drug stories but I wouldn't say comprehensive simply because there doesn't seem to be the level of international contributors from the rather small number of stories I read. There is a reason for this in the history of how the book came to be published so don't take it as a criticism.

 

sayarsan's picture

Secrets of Mexico's Drug War

The arrest of Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'el Chapo' Guzman in February 2014 was hailed as a victory in America's war on drugs, but the truth behind the capture could be just another murky chapter in the scandal-ridden history of US involvement in Latin America and the Mexican drug wars.

sayarsan's picture

Secrets of Mexico's Drug War

The arrest of Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'el Chapo' Guzman in February 2014 was hailed as a victory in America's war on drugs, but the truth behind the capture could be just another murky chapter in the scandal-ridden history of US involvement in Latin America and the Mexican drug wars.

Tales from the Underworld

I had thought Burroughs the first to chronicle addiction and the eternal chase in modern society. But Hans Fallada was doing it all decades earlier.  His depiction of two mates out on a hunt for prescription pads, croakers or easy chemists - it's all fresh and very realistic.  Sure, it's morphine (monacetyl not diacetyl) that they chase, but that's probably all there was back then.  I am always amazed at the connection between the paltry lives of junkies a century ago, and their lives today - in some ways worse, as the sources HF had back then are long dried/wised up.

sayarsan's picture

Queensland police tied to major drug trafficking

Hardly 'Breaking News', more a reminder that some things never really change.

Life Keith Richards

So the front cover of the edition I read goes while the spine has 'Keith Richards Life', since mine comes from the library a catalogue sticker covers the word 'Life' on the spine. All that is neither here nor there but the fact that the book was written with James Fox (no not the co-star of 'Performance' with Mick and Anita) is worthy of note and he gets due mention on the title page and on the inside/back of the dust jacket. The book reads pretty much as a monologue with Keith as first person and is interspersed with various characters contributing their version of events.

felix's picture

Sewage measures drug usage

An interesting article on a scientist's collation of data on drug levels in sewage - showing weekend spikes in recreationals and a steady dose of methadone - what I would have expected.

Pusher

At last, a movie that deals with the low level heroin business in a non-glamourised, fairly realistic fashion. I'm amazed that when I watched this film I realised it hadn't been done successfully before.  IMDB says "A drug pusher grows increasingly desperate after a botched deal leaves him with a large debt to a ruthless drug lord."

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