Story (I’ll try to summarise): The guy gets busted for being part of a gang who smuggles drugs onto the Isle of Man. Loses job instantly and sent to prison.
Years later the place is desperately short of staff and recently released from prison he is asked back. Tells me how prison changed him and he won’t be associated with drugs ever again.
Months later he books a holiday. I ask him where to. “Amsterdam”.
Is it just the naiveity in me talking or is that an obvious sign of his non-reformity?
Seems a bit suspect to me! If he was a heroin user, Amsterdam is the place to go to find it.
I must admit, I have a morbid curiosity about heroin. I’ve read all kinds of information on it and accounts of users’ lives. I’ve never seen it or known anybody who used it. Something about it is so compelling that it takes will so monumental that we mere mortals can’t comprehend, to stay off it. If ever confronted with the opportunity to find out, I would decline, but damn, I wish I knew. The problem is, can you only do it once? Are you not then saddled forever with the desire to do it some more? And then having been addicted to it and gone clean, how can you stave off the cravings to go back on it?
This might be where your colleague is now. Fighting to stay off it, and losing. For his sake, I hope not.
me too. I actually quite like the guy. he’s irritable but a good person to talk to.
My biggest worry on hearing that he’d be coming back was “will I some day try to use his knowledge/connections to aquire drugs for myself??”. what with my addictive nature.
I have never done drugs but I do have a drinking problem.
He may or may not be planning to do drugs in Amsterdam – there are, I believe, other things to do there.
However, he’s playing with fire if he has a history of addiction. He’ll be in a place where it is very easy for him to get things that he should be getting (that is, if he really means it when he says he won’t be associated with drugs again).
You don’t mention what kind of drugs he was originally involved in smuggling. It’s possible that he’s staying away from the hard stuff but still willing to engage in lesser druges (marijuana/hashish, for example). It’s still a very dangerous situation to put himself in.
How long has he been clean? Is he working an active recovery program thru one of the mutual help groups like AA or NA or others? Is he going there to enjoy seeing the Van Goghs and the Rembrandts? To enjoy the canals?
I’m recovering, and I thoroughly enjoyed my days in Amsterdam, with nary a craving. But I had a long track record of being clean, and went with my dad to visit friends and family. I don’t think it would have been the place for me to take a holiday all on my own, without a specific purpose.
All I saw in the OP was that he got busted for trafficking; not drug use. I didn’t see anything about heroin or addiction, either.
What I did see is that he’s planning a trip to Amsterdam – The Garden Spot of Smoking Pot. Many, many people don’t consider pot to be a drug, per se. Nor do most people consider it dangerous. It isn’t even seriously thought of as a “gateway” drug anymore. If he wants to go get a buzz, that would be the place to do it. It won’t land him in jail, for one.
Eh…it’s not all that great. I mean, if you consider a cessation of all pain and fear and the feeling of the greatest sex you’ve ever had for hours and hours without having to move not all that great .
Ummm…I think what I mean is, it’s hard to know what to say to that question, 'cause on the one hand, it IS great…we wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t. We’re not stupid, ya know :D. But at the same time I don’t want to contribute to its mysitique. It’s a painkiller. A very good pain killer. Which can be very compelling if you happen to be in pain (physical or otherwise). But that’s all.
If you’re not young and stupid or very unhappy (as I was at the time) I can’t imagine needing quite that much pain killed on a regular basis. I don’t think an adult, with a life, who is not in pain( of whatever kind), would be swept away by it. Don’t give it that much credit.
It took me a long time to disentangle myself from it (as it does most people), but that’s not just because it so wonderful I couldn’t give it up…its because it damages your ability ot feel pleasure otherwise, and because the combination of phsical and psychological addiction is particularly viscious, and because addiction itself can, for those of who find life to overwhelming, can make it…well…simpler.
Anyway, as to the OP, I’m with Qadgop. I haven’t been to Amsterdam, but I’ve been back to the East Village where I did it…and indeed, ran in to any number of people who offered…insisted really. But I didn’t, not because I was trying not to, I just don’t want to anymore. But it took a long time to get there.
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