Addiction first took hold of Richard Farrell after a torn knee put an end to hopes of a professional athletics career. That same injury started his relationship with pain medication. One thing led to another, as these things do, and by the time he reached thirty Farrell had succumbed to almost every aspect of the heroin lifestyle.

His journey to redemption is chronicled in his new memoir, What's Left of Us. Farrell was one of the lucky ones; after twenty failed attempts, he slayed his dragon at a run-down, state-funded detox clinic in Massachusetts, and went on to fulfill his potential as an author, journalist, teacher, filmmaker and screenwriter.

Many addicts will not be so fortunate. Clinics such as these are the easy victims of budget cuts. As bankrupt states struggle to pick up the incarceration tab for the collateral damage of the War on Drugs, and our federal government goes deeper into debt to pay for its War on (drug-funded) Terror, Farrell's life experience leads him to pose an important question: Have we forgotten the simple laws of supply and demand? By funding these two never-ending wars are we ineffectually treating the symptoms instead of battling the cause? Wouldn't our money be better spent reducing the demand for drugs?

The state-funded treatment of drug addiction has never been a vote-winning cause (just look at the tap dancing Obama was forced to do recently on the prickly issue of needle exchange programs). Here, in this special guest column, Farrell makes the case for a more enlightened drug (and healthcare) policy and talks of the horrors that will likely transpire if we continue on our current course, which is tantamount to treating cancer with a gold-plated plaster -- ridiculous, ineffectual, expensive and ultimately fatal.

Richard Farrell: The Two Hour Orgasm

I took heroin only once. But for three years, heroin took me to anyplace it wanted to. I stole, robbed, hustled, and did whatever was necessary to keep a 10-bag-a-day habit in full throttle.

Heroin is amazing. It is the devil. Heroin is like riding the peak of an orgasm for hours. It sucks you in, removes all your doubt and fears in a heartbeat. In less than three seconds, its warm snake grabs onto your heart and sets you free. I've been clean for over 22 years. But not one day goes by that I do not remember the mighty power of heroin's ensnare.

Back then, to most, I was a scumbag junkie who should have been locked up. The majority of people in America believe addiction is a moral issue. Sadly, the current administration's policy is a shadow of those beliefs.

President Obama has failed to confront the issue of free and immediate health care for all addicts seeking help. This is not only an egregious oversight but arguably an error that has the potentiality to crumble America from within.

Recently, President Obama created a four point plan of attack. First up on his agenda will be an all out effort to crackdown on drug use in our cities and towns. Next he'll be sending an increased, unspecified amount of US Border Patrol Agents to facilitate his third point of action. For the first time ever, the US Border Patrol will be conducting inspections of all trains and cars exiting the United States. And finally, Obama released $59 million to Homeland Security for immediate execution in the war against drugs.

On paper it appears to be a comprehensive attack. But the goal of reducing drug use in America and thereby decreasing demand of illegal drugs entering from Mexico will not be effective without an emergency health care plan that allows access to rehabilitation hospitals for drug addicts seeking recovery. There simply are not enough jails in America to hold the mounting numbers of drug addicts. Those suffering from this addiction only have two choices every morning -- repeat or recover.

Recently, the New York Times ran a story about Dana Smith, a mother who had just lost her son to heroin. The facts are gruesome, horrific. This was Dana Smith's third son lost to a heroin overdose. She said her boys "fell like dominoes."

But what strikes me is the location of where her kids died. Not in New York City, Detroit, Miami, or Los Angeles, but on the streets of Grove City, Ohio, in the heartland of America.

Heroin is back. The Federal Drug Administration has no way of adequately policing the vast network of crisscrossing highways in Middle America. Drug-traffickers understand their advantage here and are mounting an all out war for control of America's suburbs.

But there is another large ingredient to add to this potpourri. The fucking wheels have come off the United States economy. From coast to coast, fear, unemployment, crime, and mental depression have reached all-time highs.

And heroin is the perfect answer. It doesn't matter if you're a teenager whose parents have lost their jobs and homes. Or you're a returning soldier who has seen shit nobody should ever remember. Heroin, with its seductive magic, will free all from the uncertainties our future holds.

And the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan is mindfully aware of heroin's effect on the youth in the United States. In 2007, they earned $300 million from Afghan poppy farms. Most people fear the insurgence of the Taliban and their poppy farm profits which they're using to fund terrorism around the world. But President Obama and his administration are being fooled. The Taliban are after our youth and nobody on Capitol Hill has a clue.

They have forgotten about Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid. During the ten years of a failed siege on Troy, the Greeks built a large wooden horse in the darkness of night. One day the Greeks pretended to sail away and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory prize. However, inside were members of the Greek army who opened the gates. The Greek army retuned and destroyed Troy.

Heroin is our Trojan horse. You see, when I shot heroin it was $30 a bag. Today, because Afghanistan produces 90% of poppy seeds around the world, it is $5 a bag.

Any fuckin' questions?!

Bottom line, President Obama must confront the ever increasing popularity of heroin in America's heartland. We need to focus more tax dollars on free comprehensive health care. It is quite simple; the demand for heroin is increasing daily. The Taliban has the supply, the economy is spiraling downward, and hundreds of American kids are reaching out for euphoria.

Each and every new heroin addict is in search of that two-hour orgasm, but by the time heroin is finished, it will rob them of their souls. In the end, heroin will leave them and their families with nothing but pain, anguish, and death.

Mr. President, I personally do not know one single heroin addict with health insurance.

Richard Farrell is an author, filmmaker, teacher, journalist, and adjunct professor of English at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. His documentary, High on Crack Street, was aired on HBO and received Columbia University's duPont Award. His memoir, What's Left of Us, published by Citadel Press, is out now. He is the screenwriter for the upcoming film The Fighter, which stars Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg.

Fatality

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

JUL 29, 2009 10:15 AM

So excited to read this...this is my area of academic research (recidivism to opiate use)!

Fatality

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

JUL 29, 2009 10:25 AM

state funded detox clinic in Massachusetts, and went on to fulfill his potential as an author, journalist, teacher and screenwriter.

Many addicts will not be so fortunate. Clinics such as these are the easy victims of budget cuts.

I just want to point out that I am the number one fan of therapeutic rather than punitive intervention, but there are a lot of misconceptions about detox. Mainly that they work. Detox works very very infrequently to change someone's lifestyle unless they're couple with substitution medication, long-term treatment programs, etc. And even then... They're okay as stepping stones, but usually are a revolving door that people know don't work.

There simply are not enough jails in America to hold the mounting numbers of drug addicts. Those suffering from this addiction only have two choices every morning -- repeat or recover.

Very true, but there also aren't enough hospital or program beds, either. And plenty of addicts use them to lower their tolerance or recuperate when they run out of money.
We need more funding into beds, but we also need a lot more funding into researching recovery and intervention methods for people who want them. Imagine detoxing and then having to go back to the streets until a long-term program opens up!
[We need suboxone doctors able to prescribe more than a hundred people at a time!]
It's a difficult position because saying "free and immediate health care for all addicts seeking help" is that means free and immediate health care for all addicts seeking help with recovery, with "three hots and a cot", or whatever their reasons are. This does not mean turning people away, but does mean recognizing the complexity of the issue. A lot of people just don't want to stop, don't want to change the lifestyle, whatever, so that needs to be recognized.
Also, certain programs require methadone maintenance after a certain number of failed detoxes.

it is $5 a bag.

or lower!

by the time heroin is finished, it will rob them of their souls.

though I know a lot of addicts feel and say this, I feel like public statements like this often work to perpetuate negative stigma of the addict as less than human, which, in turn, propagates negative policy implications.

Anyways, thanks for this great article. Hopefully my funded research can eventually make some headway in this; I come at it from the perspective of qualitatively involving the addicts' perspectives in their own views on the matters...what is helpful and harmful, hopeful or disrespectful for them.

Fatality

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

JUL 29, 2009 10:41 AM

And yes yes yes underlying all of this is just the basic point that the health care system needs to be revamped for everyone!