Member-only story
Oil and Heroin
This exploration will examine the features of a functional relationship with recreational drugs as opposed to dysfunctional drug abuse.
I write from the perspective of a dysfunctional user who benefitted from the lens contemplated here. Connection with loved ones and health providers did all the rest.
Oil and heroin is the duet of daily life. This whirlpool of survival and decadence pulls us through obligation, indulgence, and guilt in a lifelong cycle. Anything valuable to the planet’s resource economy demands the time and productivity of its harvesters to live up to its promise of relief. Relief is temporary bliss for the price of your body, time, and unknowable others.
Labor is only as valuable as the bounty it reaps, yet to indulge is to distract the reaper from their work. Each day, we seek the oil to sustain our lifestyle or revel in the temptations it affords. Vigilance is crucial lest oil or heroin run entirely dry.
For recreational drug takers, from barflies to stoners, one of the strongest justifications is their oil supply is already running smoothly — so what’s the harm in a couple of drinks? What do we do if it does hurt us? Is avoiding reality a bad thing? How do we give back when we are sober?
