#84: Shooting Up

In this episode, I take you along on my first experience of injecting heroin. Rituals of use are a big part of addiction. They have increasingly become the focus of both  addiction researchers and treatment providers. When we do something that makes us feel better (take a drug, place a bet, make a move, hit the gas, take a trip, etc.), we begin to feel the effects of that action before we actually do it. And the more we do it, the earlier and more intense our feelings become. Injecting drugs is a ritual of use. We lay out the equipment in a familiar room, on a  familiar table. We turn on the same TV or we click on the same stereo. We notice the same sounds and smells, the same sense of what is coming. All of it becomes part of the ritual.  In cultures of drug prohibition, rituals of use expand to fill an addicted person's entire life. Our laws are designed to make it appear to be the fault of drug users, not the culture which ensured it will happen.  Audio for the intro & outro came from a 1967 anti-drug PSA called Narcotics: Pit of Despair. Support the show