I’ m not a Junkie!

[Woodman]

Do you know a person who seems obsessed with using?
Does that person depend on family for lodging and/or financial support?
Are they always hitting you up for small favors here & there; a ride somewhere, always borrowing tools or household supplies, or perhaps a few bucks for food or gas or a pack of cigarettes?

Chances are, that person is a JUNKIE!

Junkies are a unique class of drug users. They are actually ADDICTS who use and manipulate others to further their own habit.

Where a RECREATIONAL DRUG USER may use drugs infrequently, and a DRUG ADDICT is compelled to use drugs regularly, the JUNKIE is separated from the them by his willing to exhaust all social, medical, personal, and financial options. A junkie is best described as a ruthless addict willing to burn all bridges and cheat anyone and everyone in order to get drugs; and indeed, a junkie has NO friends.

You may know someone who is in the process of becoming a junkie. There ARE telltale signs to look for that would indicate one is turning from a drug
addict into a full-blown junkie.

One of the first indicators is the absence of electronics: stereo, computer, C/D’s, DVD’s & DVD player, etc. Usually all but the TV, though eventually
even that will go as cable and satellite services require regular payments that would otherwise feed a voracious habit.

If a junkie has a job it usually doesn’t last long, and sooner or later they will find their way to government assistance.

Cars owned by junkies don’t fare well at all. They are poorly maintained and any damage the car sustains may take months to repair, but as long as it
can run it will be used for quick transport to and from a dealers house.

Of course, driving a damaged vehicle makes anyone susceptible to being stopped by cops and issued a citation, but a junkie fetching drugs is like a Messiah on a religious mission and not likely to be concerned with a court date that’s 30-60 days away. Moreover, the god of a junkie requires regular worship, so it is also likely a junkie will get stopped on SEVERAL separate occasions and issued MULTIPLE citations.

Junkies have a limited perspective of current events, especially as they relate to their own community. They will be acutely aware of a new federal law
enforcement program in their district while completely unconcerned with a road widening project at the bottom of their own street. This kind of social detachment is characteristic among almost all junkies.

Don’t bother asking for sports scores, because they don’t keep up. The TV’s gone so they aren’t familiar with any TV shows. They won’t go to a bar because they can’t do drugs in public (it’s not beer they are after, anyway), and it’s probably been at least a year since they’ve even visited a theater to see a movie.

These aren’t the type of people who are going to have friends over for a barbecue while drinking beer in the back yard. In fact it’s more likely they traded the Webber grill for a hit or two, the grass is overgrown, and the house is in a bad state of disrepair. There’s probably more than one “Past Due” notice lying around somewhere, and you may discover either the telephone or electricity isn’t working.

Water is usually the last to be shut-off, and by that time a bench warrant has probably been issued for all those traffic citations that were disregarded.

If you know a junkie, the WORST thing you can do is to let them do you a favor. It may be to score some drugs, or just to have them give you a ride
somewhere; or perhaps just to introduce you to someone. Whatever it may be, once the junkie has done you that favor, you are (in the mind of a junkie) FOREVER in their debt and will likely find that you’re expected to repay this favor many times over as the junkie hits you up for everything from spare change to a place to stay. The most important rule in dealing with a junkie is to Never let a junkie do you ANY favors.

The SECOND WORST thing you can do is to actually allow YOURSELF to do a favor FOR a junkie; to give him a ride somewhere, or to pass him a few bucks for breakfast or bus money. Keep in mind that once you do a junkie a favor they will be back to hit you up for more (hookers often pry their johns in this way. it’s called “playing a mark” as they nickle & dime you for extras above & beyond the original fee), and their need knows no end

As a general rule, junkies spend all of their resources in pursuit of drugs. The meal you provide to a junkie means that much less that they will have to spend on food, allowing them more money to buy drugs, and making you a mark to hit-up the next time they need a free meal; so rule #2 is NEVER do any favor for a junkie.

If there’s a THIRD rule to dealing with a junkie it is a very simple rule: Never talk to a junkie about being a junkie. No matter what you say to them, they will NOT change. It may give them pause to contemplate the harm they have caused. It may even bring a junkie to admit that he (or she) actually IS a junkie, but it will not change them. The best you can expect is a rambling confession that seems very much sincere, but a junkie’s repentance is short lived and their contrition is for practical purposes, ONLY.

At the end of it you will be asked to perform an act of faith, proving that you believe them to be truthful and sincere, willing to clean-up and straighten themselves out. It'll just takes a few bucks for a pack of cigarettes, or a ride into town, or “let me borrow ...”

If anything is certain about junkies, it is that they are MOOCHES of the worst order, and anyone who’s known a junkie recognizes the behavior and knows
that it gets old, fast.

Junkies give drugs (and drug users) a bad name. Mention the term “drug user” in casual discussion (even among some drug users), and the personification of a “Junkie” is usually the first image that comes to mind.

The media has wasted no effort in exploiting this image to advance a political agenda in support of drug control. The effect of this brainwashing campaign has been so successful that it has even found it’s way here, to a forum of drug users, where visitors post questions with the presumption that ALL drug users live and behave in a manner that is almost uniquely reserved for (and characteristic of) junkies.

As a drug user I, for one, am sick and tired of taking the rap as a result of all the crap for which junkies are truly responsible.

Goddamit!...I am NOT a Junkie!

The time is long overdue for someone to step forward and make clear the distinction between drug use, drug addicts, and junkies. If you use drugs then you will eventually be required to make such a stand on this issue, because to remain silent is to permit drug control advocates to continue misleading the public and allow them to misrepresent all drug users in the stereotypes that they regularly present to the general public.

Reputation Comments on this post:

nice!