News > Politics > Richard Farrell: The Two Hour Orgasm

feature
WEDNESDAY JULY 29 2009 10:00 AM

Richard Farrell: The Two Hour Orgasm

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.

PAGE:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Comments

Otoki

SUICIDEGIRL

Minnesota, USA

AUG 01, 2009 04:49 PM

Cash said:
I don't know what the solution is...only that the current plan in place isn't it.

While I tend to lean towards legalization...I just can't see that happening in this country for a long, long time. Marijuana....arguably the MOST socially acceptable drug that is currently not legal can't even get legalized in our most liberal state.

Can you imagine the field day that the bible belt would have if there was a move to legalize heroin? I'm not saying I'm against it.....just that....You'd need to come up with one hell of a fight to get it to move forward.

Then again, look at what's happening with Gay marriage. Slowly but surely...

IDGAS

Boston, MA

March 2004

AUG 01, 2009 06:30 PM

Rather then fighting for legalization the drugs on Schedules I - V they could be moved into the same class as antibiotics for prescription writing. Hence one would have controlled, safe, and available drugs without the associated BAU political bullshit.

BTW like ChrisSick and many others who have written I too favor complete legalization.

SuperCrunch

Birmingham, AL

January 2007

AUG 02, 2009 12:24 PM

Otoki said:
This thread is giving me a lot to think about. I'm curious about joining Chemical Halo if this is a frequent discussion. I've not done so because I don't use anything, so I didn't think I'd be welcome, but this is a really important discussion and I feel like people who use have an extremely relevant POV.

The opinions of users and addicts are often ignored in any "serious" debate, because we clearly lack the mental stability to make conscious decisions and thus must have an overbearing mother government to make the most fundamental choice of any living creature (what to put in your body). So I would definitely advise you to talk to people with drug experience, when forming opinions about drugs and their possible legalization etc.

Anyway, just thought I'd add a study that validates a lot of what has been said in this thread regarding the total legalization of all drugs: Decriminalization in Portugal

While the government hasn't implemented any sort of full-blown legalization, you can see the benefits of treating addicts as people rather than convicts.

SuperCrunch

Birmingham, AL

January 2007

AUG 02, 2009 12:30 PM

Kikka said:
legalizing all drugs would shift the world into a different realm of problems.
still, it seems this nonsense approach sported by all /most(?) governments is a big or even main contribution to the fuck up.
it really made me a bit teary eyed to read really well informed responses here, educated statements, but knowing that stupidity will prevail and go along with any system of handling drugs.
that's a far gone cheeziness on my side. it's still some way before any real changes will be made... and

a tiny bit OT:
if heroin would be legal, i'd be on it big time. what keeps me safely away is the will to stay on a certain side of the world. if i could pick it up in a pharmacy, i'd be a crazy housewife with all possible drug problems. Yes, there are confirmed studies of people getting back on track after being legally prescribed heroin, and their dosage also did get down.But there is a vast amount of people who are using the legal drugs, all the xanaxes and rivotrils and whatnot of the world. I'm just saying that legalizing is a big word. I represent all the bunch of stupid people, emotionally unstable, over sensitive, struggling to be happy. I personally choose to refuse to cooperate with legally appointed ways of handling it, anti-depressants etc, but like most of us humans, I have an in-build system of self-medication. That system would abuse the legalized world or drugs like WHOA.

so,

Fatality said:
Decriminalization is also an option.

and it rings better in my humble ears.

Decriminalization is just a cop-out. People just like it because it sounds less extreme than legalization. However, when you don't make efforts to control and regulate the production, distribution and sale of drugs; then you do nothing to combat the black market control of said drugs. Then you end up funding criminal organizations every time that you snort, smoke, drink, drop etc.

SuperCrunch

Birmingham, AL

January 2007

AUG 02, 2009 12:54 PM

This article has more information than the last one.

Cash

USA

OLD SKOOL

AUG 03, 2009 05:00 AM

Otoki said:

Then again, look at what's happening with Gay marriage. Slowly but surely...

True...but I think the fight for gay marriage has a better argument. In terms of denial of civil rights...gay marriage seems, in my opinion, to hold more weight than the legalization of drugs....especially since drugs HAD their heydey in American culture.

Now, I'm no scholar on gay rights & culture...but I don't think that the gay community had it's era of social acceptability in comparison to what the drug culture had in the 60's & 70's.

Now...keep in mind that I am for both gay marriage AND the legalization of drugs...but I think drugs have taken a back seat to gay marriage....and will have to wait much, much longer.