And I do not necessarily mean personal stories - just any stories, so that people can read and learn from them. Perhaps cautionary tales.
I ask this because in 2007, I was speaking to a carpenter who said that some people close to him were facing a some legal troubles that had a negative impact on him - he said he smoked something like 14-28 grams of Coke [converted to crack, so it would have lost weight] every day for something to like 18 days or even a month straight [I can't recall, as this conversation took place over ten years ago] until he ran out of money - or just about ran out.
I remember when I met him in 2007, I was told he was 40, but I thought he looked much younger. I just didn't get how a human being could use drugs the way he did - in addition to smoking like a chimney - and look younger than his biological age. He died in 2014. He was 45.
. I found that out since the obituary listed a 1969 year of birth So he was actually 38 when I met him...I still felt he looked closer to 28 though.
I thought to myself "Does this guy have the constitution of a horse??
And...no. His drinking, smoking, and drug use eventually caught up to him, as he died of lung cancer, and I believe had it for under a year in total. Sad stuff - but I suppose it was ultimately a predictable outcome.
Incidentally, I thought Art Atwood also had the constitution of a horse, and, well...let's just say, very few people are beyond human genetic limitations.
Wikipedia states that Jean-Claude Van Damme did up to 10 grams of coke per day by 1996 in the section "Personal life".
I was told that Eminem was using something like 20 Oxycontin 80 pills in a day. Who knows what the exact number may have been there, but I think he had an album where he addressed some of this.
My friend was friends with a professor who said that his friends in the 1960s who were into cocaine died young, mostly of heart attacks, but the ones who did opiates were still alive. Meaning that making our hearts race is going to wear it out faster, but slowing it down with opioid use is not as damaging. After all, there are people who are prescribed opioids for years. I know two people, both over 250-lb, who take at least one Oxycontin 80 pill in a day. My friend told me that he 65-year-old mother has been prescribed Fentanyl for daily use since 1984.
Anyway, does anyone have any cautionary tales to share? I would enjoy hearing them. They say "JUST SAY NO", but I prefer to say "I want more information than that."
Let's be mature adults regarding drugs, and try to help prevent those close to us from going down bad roads. The more we know!
Discuss.
