T H E . D R U G . C U L T U R E

happiness

THE DRUG CULTURE

A new report came out recently that determined that most drug users are not the whacked out, crack head, hype that you see on TV that will steal your Rolex in order to get another hit. That dude is out there too, so watch out for him, but according to this report, the majority of the nation's drug users are folks that work every day, raise families, and cut you off on the freeway.

Well, while I was reinventing myself in Computer school a few years back, I had to drive a cab, to make ends meet. My territory was down in good old conservative Orange County, California. Late in the evening, after the bedtime stories had been read, and the kids were nicely tucked away in their beds, it would start.

The dispatcher at the cab company would start taking calls from cul-de-sacs in Costa Mesa, Irvine, Newport Beach, Tustin, and all over the citrus fruited plain. As the driver, I was surprised the first few times, when my passenger slipped up on me from across the street from the address that he gave us, but I later learned that they just did not want to give their true address. They would gleefully hop in the back seat of the cab, and mumble something about a need to visit a construction site across town, or their ex-wife. They would never have an exact address, but rather a simple set of instructions that would eventually get us close to the hood/barrio in Santa Ana. At some point he would abruptly signal a quick turn down a darkened street, toss a twenty or fifty dollar bill over the seat, and apologize for asking me to pull over under a street light where a gang of T-shirt, and bandana wearing kids huddled in the shadows. At this point I would have to take over the transaction, and tell him that he had to get out of the car and walk over to the boys, make his buy, and come back to the car.

I would always tell these guys that if the deal went bad, don't run this way, because the Cab would be gone at the first sign of trouble. Why a guy would leave his suburban home, and travel to the darkest region of the streets to meet with perhaps his final act of self deception at the finale of his very life, to get another hit, I will never know. Believe this. The broke ass, food stamp spending, $5. A hit characters that are getting busted for drug abuse can no more fuel a rich underground, black market drug economy, than they can support any other industry, perhaps showcased on Wall Street. The same people that support our banking automotive, and tax systems, also keep the young gang bangers in $200. Sneakers.