A general guide to self-preservation within the drug culture.

[BlondieUK]

Swim will preface this by saying, this was written with the sole intention of helping those
who are within the drug-culture to look after themselves in all aspects of their person, and
as such, is not endorsing the use of drugs, either illegal or illegal, but merely providing
logical advice drawn from the experience of swim's sisters kittens, in the aim of reducing
harm to those at risk.



The following is general advice aimed at anyone who indulges in any
form of drug, legal or illegal, stimulant or downer, herbal or chemical, addictive or
non-addictive.
It will not dwell on specifics, although links may be added in the future
to specific topics (e.g intravenous injection into the femoral vein, purifying cocaine,
dosage of I.M ketamine and so forth). Rather, it will give the advice one can only learn
through experience. (Oh and, of course, that someone to whom the
information given, is not you, )


A) Do not buy in bulk.

Every swimmer has at some time or another, considered buying a quantity of their
favourite mind altering substance, which goes beyond their immediate needs, for reasons
such as saving money (usually bulk orders are cheaper), reducing time spent obtaining
said subtances (why make three trips when you can make one?) and the general feeling of
well-being that goes with sitting next to a large pile of whichever given substance swiy prefers most (Swim dubs this, the "Scarface complex").

Now, although this may seem a good idea at the time, Swiyou needs to think this through.

Does swiy have enough self control to only use said substance at the usual times?
Will swiys friends start popping around more often in an attempt to score some free gear?
Could swiy be tempted to deal a little, earn back a bit of his money?
Bare in mind most low-level dealers only deal, or started dealing, in order to finance their own habits. When swiy starts doing this, it's a very short road before the above two examples also start appearing. Be aware.

B) Be aware of Swiys friends.

Now this may sound like paranoia talking, but to quote Hunter Thompson,
"You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug"

Due to the very nature of the drug-culture, swiy will meet all types of mostly
interesting people throughout your travels, and while the overwhelming majority of drug
users are, despite public opinion, well-adjusted, considerate and basically decent human
beings, there are always a few people who tend to give the whole ride a bad name.

These people tend to be socially maladjusted without drugs, and adding another dimension
to their brain will only enhance this. Swim should develop a good bull-shit detector, and
learn to see people for who they are, something which is commonly overlooked in "sober"
society.
This means considering the interests, motivations, morals and ethics of thers. Now swim
isn't suggesting that swiy questions someone's motive every time they pass a joint, but
whenever engaging a circle of new friends, it is always worthwhile to take in as much as you
can from each person and try to understand their individual personalities as best you can.
For example, at a basic level, if Swiy befriends a group of generally nice guys, but one of
them seems to be overly aggressive (abusing a taxi driver, threatening people in clubs,
condescending behaviour backed up with intimidation), then would it not be reasonable to
suggest, that bringing this particular person to a bar to drink all night, would perhaps not
be a good idea? Alcohol lowers peoples inhibitions, and could allow someone who is already
potentially violent, to bring to life the actions of their mind. IE get drunk and hit someone.

The other reason for being aware is, how closely does the drug use of the group resemble
Swims? Now Swim would say that generally, a person at a party smoking pot would be more
likely to be found standing with fellow smokers, than someone buzzing off their head on mdma.
Obviously everyone interacts, but people tend to group with those of the same mindset, and
where drugs are involved, mindsets can alter dramatically (briefly, Swim attended a party
with around 30 close friends on a beach last summer, however by around 3am swim and a fellow
party goer were both heavily on ket, wheras most were using MDMA, this led to swim and his
new friend bonding over their shared mind, with relative ignorance to the rest of the group)
Now if swiys friends enjoy the same general attitude towards drugs regarding frequency,
drug type, method of injestion etc, it serves to keep swieveryone on the same level. However,
how comfortable would swiy be for example, if swiy enjoyed a bit of coke with a few beers,
but some of swims group preferred sitting down and freebasing? Would swim feel bothered?
Might he be tempted to try new things? (god knows swiu all have, thats why we're here!),
would it serve to make Swim an outcast if he didn't eventually partake in these things?
The most important thing though, and the thing to be most careful of, is unfortunately,
allowing yourself to fall in with those who are addicted. Now swim is not saying don't
befriend those who are addicted, but simply, try to avoid using with them, because once
addiction takes hold it is quite normal to see regular heavy drug use as standard, since
it is only when someone realises it is NOT the standard, that they realise they have a problem. The two stages
prior to this are of course, ignorance and denial
To make this slightly less personal, Swim will use an example everyone can relate to;
The Dealer.

As swim mentioned before, most low-level dealers are simply dealing to maintain their
own habits, and are not making much profit despite what you might believe. Starting to use
with your dealer is a very quick way of becoming both penniless and strung out, DON'T DO IT!

Now apply this to people who have a known dependency, and use your own logic. If you have a
friend addicted to heroin, this may not, and if swiy does not involve himself, should not,
cause a problem to swiy.
Sadly however, this is often not the case. Your friend has a monkey shaped like a block
of peruvian marching powder on his back, and every time swiy seems him, he offers swiy a line.
Whats the problem?
The problem is, most people simply do not understand how fucking SNEAKY addiction is. Swiy
will not just wake up one day with intense cravings and make a snap decision on whether to
be sober or become a junkie. It starts so subtely swim won't even notice it. If you smoke,
try to remember how it began. A friend smokes. Maybe some of swiy's friends smoke. Swiy is
hanging out with his friends and inevitably ends up getting offered a cigarette. Now swiy
isn't addicted, and that's cool, but even now the wheels are rolling. It has gone from
swiy hanging out and not smoking, while his friends smoke, to swiy hanging out with his friends
and sharing the occasional cigarette with them. Then, without swiy noticing it, he starts
going outside with his friends more often, maybe even asking for a cigarette for himself,
once this happens, swiy's pretty much fucked, and it's only a matter of time before swiy
is buying for himself.

Now obviously swiy can avoid this in a number of ways, such as deliberately not saving the
contact information of known distributors and such, but where there's a will there's a way,
and swim can promise that the easiest way to get addicted to anything is by simply sharing
with a friend who currently has a dependency. There's just so many ways to brush it off!
"Oh it's just with them" "It's only on weekends" "It's social" etc etc.

Simply put, do not do it. Using with someone who already has an addiction will only bring

that same addiction out in swiy.

Please, please, make sure swiy remembers this, it is the singlemost important bit of advice swiy can give.



Which brings swim to..

C) Have a good basic knowledge of drugs.

This means not just the drugs that swim takes,
This applies to all drugs, so it is useful for swiy to have an understanding of the most
commonly used drugs, their effects, their associations, or a particular ideology attributed to that particular subtance.(the scope of the mind is wide and fantastic,
and different drugs can push people into very different directions)
It would be good to know for example, that sitting with someone who may have done alot
of coke, swiy can expect a little more chat than from the average ketamine user.
Likewise, if swiy engages someone under the influence of mdma, swiy should be more considerate
to that persons sense, and not be offended if swiy is cuddled or told (s)he is loved. It is
all part of the wide and wonderful world of the mind, and swim must be aware.
Just imagine walking down the street and seeing a drunkard, but with no comprehension of
alcohol. To swiy this person is rude, aggressive, arrogant, loud and possibly retarded to boot.
However if swiy knows the effects of alcohol, it is easier to understand the subjects state,
and therefore to empathise to a certain extent, and to take these matters into consideration.

Having a reasonably solid knowledge of drugs, in all aspects (uses, chemistry, effects,
reactions with other drugs, side effects, etc), it means that not only is swim educated,
but swims friends are educated via association.

Example, swiys friend gets an eightball of cocaine. Swiys friend has no idea how strong it
is and has never tried it before, so figures he'll make a small pile and just stuff his nose
in, because he saw that on a film once (ha =P).

Swiy could, without having used cocaine before, show his friend the more common dosages,
methods and and be able to forewarn his friend about possible effects swiys friend may not
expect, as long as he has spent a little time reading up about the matter (Swiy understood
the difference between the four grades of heroin and the methodology of preparing each of these for injestion long before swim actually tried it).
This is because, by and large, drug use is very simple, but at the same time, equally easy
to screw up. Drugs are made for drug users. Most drugs, will have swiys brain finding things
a little harder to understand, or do, than when sober. For this reason, swiys drugs will be
made in an easily injestable form (ie no coke rocks, pre-crushed coke ready for cutting and
snorting, or pre-cooked ketamine)
This also means, that while swiy doesn't have to be a staring at a chemistry book when he's trying to get high, it also means that it's very easy to take too much without really realising it (now most swimmers know that too much tequila means there's a possibility of waking up in Mexico next to a large man named El Burro, but swius still takes that chance once in a while)
Therefore t is always worthwhile to know a bit about the drugs in question, even if swim
isn't using them. Is swim's friend on MDMA and freaking out? Swim can tell her that it's okay,
look into her eyes, breathe deeply, find her neutral space, breathe, relax, spread your arms
and let it go. Ahhh. If swim knows nothing of MDMA, and presumably has a slight lack of
common sense, he may run over asking "whats wrong?! are you okay?!?! LETS GO!!" and
dragging her off, only to have her peak in the taxi and have the most beautiful journey
back to Clapham anyone has ever had.

A note on overdosing:

If swiy suspects this has happened, unless swiy genuinely
knows something which will help an overdose victim right there and there, stop fucking around
and call an ambulance, followed by a good lawyer, etc.

(Swim notes that obviously there is also the opportunity to take the victim to the hospital themselves, but Swim would go with the ambulance if possible because a severe overdose can have a matter of minutes before brain damage occurs, and the time difference between a trained ambulance squad arriving at swiy's door and the time it would take swiy to get to the hospital might just be a second too long, swims two cents)

Basic procedures such as resucitation etc are
handy, but the rule swim follows is, if swim is thinking of calling an ambulance, then you should call it. Better safe than sorry.
Swim would rather wake up in hospital embarrassed because his friend found him K-holed and assumed he was in a coma, than never wake up at all because swims friends just assumed he passed out and never stopped to check if he was still breathing.


This is all for now, swim has ideas for many other things which could be added to this and would happily accept contributions from others if offered
If and when the thread grows it can be restructured appropriately into different sections covering different topics, but for now this should serve as some sort of very basic "3 golden rules" of drug-usage, and it would be nice to build this into a general guidance thread for those within this interesting, often beautiful,
sometimes scary and occasionally downright weird culture =)

The only thing swim stresses is that he is trying to avoid specifics, for example if you
need to know how to an perform an intravenous injection, there are already very large threads dedicated
to it.
At some point swim will attempt to allocate provide links to these various guides in the right places, but for now, be content that almost every significant question asked by drug users over the years has been asked , and you will find it if you try, so go ahead, UTFSE

Also if this sinks without trace, swim will simply apply his time to music the next time
his mind appears a little.. overstimulated.

Well, swim will check at some point and see what others have made of it.

Thankyou

B.



Adding soon:

- Monitoring your usage and the signs of addiction and illness
- General harm reduction techniques covering the usual methods of injection and the most commonly used drugs

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Very good, detailed informative post that will add further to our vast amounts of useful info on this forum thanks
	Wonderful guide to self preservation, although it does need lots more, i think its a great start!
	Really good information. Keep it up.
	SWiy gives important information. It can open some eyes.
	your thread is so accurate , thinking things thru , not jumping head first into a purchase, and askin about self control...