Highbrow Magazine - drug culture https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/drug-culture en Robert Stone Confronts the ‘Random Promiscuity of Events’ in New Book https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10620-robert-stone-confronts-random-promiscuity-events-new-book <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/books-fiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Books &amp; Fiction</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 05/03/2020 - 09:03</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1stonebook_0.jpg?itok=MLSuh4jt"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1stonebook_0.jpg?itok=MLSuh4jt" width="318" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>The Eye You See With: Selected Nonfiction</strong></p> <p><strong>By Robert Stone</strong></p> <p><strong>Houghton Mifflin Harcourt</strong></p> <p><strong>366 pages</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>In an absorbing new biography, Madison Smartt Bell describes <a href="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4592-remembering-robert-stone" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">the late Robert Stone</a> as “one of the most powerful and enduring writers of the late-20th century.” He’s right. Stone wrote at least three career-defining novels—<em>Dog Soldiers, A Flag for Sunrise, </em>and <em>Outerbridge Reach—</em>a nearly unparalleled achievement in modern literature.</p> <p> </p> <p>In addition to the biography, <em>Child of Light, </em>Bell has skillfully edited <em>The Eye You See With, </em>a broad selection of the novelist’s articles, essays, and other nonfiction pieces. The subjects Stone wrote about, as in his novels, range from accounts of the ravages of war in Vietnam to richly textured travel pieces set in Havana, Jerusalem, and other hot spots in-between.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Vietnam War defined Stone’s voice and vision. After a brief sojourn in and around Saigon as a freelance reporter, he wrote the epochal <em>Dog Soldiers, </em>which brilliantly transplanted the agony and immorality of that far-off conflict onto home ground. Three kilos of pure heroin, smuggled from Vietnam back into the U.S. by the novel’s protagonist, John Converse, sends a small group of tormented people fleeing for their lives—and, within the framework of an exquisitely crafted thriller, captured what we all felt in the tawdry aftermath of that failed jungle war.</p> <p> </p> <p>Drugs and alcohol played an active part throughout Stone’s work. This reflected his own experiences with intoxicants of one sort or another. It also found expression in the idea that mind-bending drugs and distorted perception might lead to a higher truth or to abject tragedy.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1war.jpg" style="height:420px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>“It’s a mess when everybody’s high,” he writes in “A Higher Horror of the Whiteness.” “I liked it better when the weirdest thing around was me.”</p> <p> </p> <p>In reports on political events, like the Republican Convention in New Orleans in 1988, Stone’s jaundiced but impeccably astute eye caught the repulsive nonsense of American politics. In <em>The Eye You See With</em>, there are also sensitively wrought essays on his struggles with Catholicism, and on how and why faith plays such a critical role in his fiction.</p> <p> </p> <p>Some pieces, inevitably perhaps, suffer from the passage of years. Even for those of us who lived through it, the turmoil of the 1960s has become shrouded in memory. Stone got it right about the war, of course, and the disastrous effects on a generation of Americans. In both his fiction and nonfiction, he spoke in a uniquely mordant voice, in language that rang true in both high and low registers. Stone looked the heart of darkness in the eye and never flinched.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the end, what seems to have propelled him through conflict with public and personal demons was the need to create fiction that stood for something. In “The Reason for Stories,” he explains:</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/psychedelic.jpg" style="height:404px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>“Storytelling is not a luxury to humanity; it’s almost as necessary as bread … As dreams are to waking life, so fiction is to reality. The brain can’t function without clearing its circuits during sleep, nor can we contemplate and analyze our situation without living some of the time in the world of the imagination, sorting and redefining the random promiscuity of events.”</p> <p> </p> <p><em>The Eye You See With </em>should drive admirers back to the work that first galvanized Robert Stone’s readers in the ‘70s and ‘80s. The novels mentioned above have lost none of their power and resonance. Open <em>Dog Soldiers </em>or <em>A Flag for Sunrise</em> and start reading. Chances are, you won’t be able to stop.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Lee Polevoi, </em></strong><strong>Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief book critic, is the author of a novel, </em>The Moon in Deep Winter, <em>and recently completed a new novel, </em>The Confessions of Gabriel Ash.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p><em>--Google Images</em></p> <p><em>--Fotoshop Tofs (<a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/military-vietnam-war-1348228/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pixabay</a>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--Stuart Hampton (<a href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/jimi-hendrix-hippie-peace-love-2265370/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pixabay</a>, Creative Commons)               </em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/robert-stone" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">robert stone</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/eye-you-see" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the eye you see with</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-biographies" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new biographies</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/vietnam-war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Vietnam war</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/1960s" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">1960s</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/psychedelic-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">psychedelic drugs</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-culture" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug culture</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new books</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nonficition" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nonficition</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lee Polevoi</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 03 May 2020 13:03:08 +0000 tara 9521 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10620-robert-stone-confronts-random-promiscuity-events-new-book#comments Filming the ‘Unfilmable’: ‘On the Road’ Hits the Big Screen https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2439-filming-unfilmable-road-hits-big-screen <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 05/16/2013 - 09:47</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ontheroad.jpg?itok=brrY1Utb"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ontheroad.jpg?itok=brrY1Utb" width="480" height="318" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> It has been more than 55 years since the publication of Jack Kerouac’s classic and definitive work, <em>On the Road. </em>The largely autobiographical novel tells the story of Sal Paradise (Kerouac’s alter ego) and Dean Moriarty (the fictional Neal Cassady) and their adventures on the road in the post-war 1940s, infused with jazz, drugs, booze and sex, always seeking IT and being chased down by time.</p> <p>  </p> <p> This work of prose, in conjunction with Allen Ginsberg’s poem, “Howl,” epitomized the writings of the Beat generation. Over the years, <em>On the Road </em>has achieved much worthy praise, is often considered among the best English-language novels ever written and has been long considered a must-read for American youths in their teens and early 20s. As a novel, despite some early mixed reviews, it has been long recognized as a work of significant cultural importance. It has also been characterized as a largely “unfilmable” work.</p> <p>  </p> <p> There have been many failed attempts to bring <em>On the Road </em>to the silver screen by U.S. filmmakers. Francis Ford Coppola, who purchased the rights to the screenplay in 1979, tried several times to adapt the work into film, but his efforts never materialized. “I never knew how to do it,” he remarked when Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles accepted the cumbersome task of filming the unfilmable. It was Salles (best known for the <em>Motorcycle Diaries</em>, another road film) that Coppola finally trusted to make <em>On the Road </em>a reality, with a screenplay developed by José Rivera.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2ontheroad.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 341px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> The strength of Salles’ interpretation lies largely in the cinematography – thanks to cinematographer Eric Gautier, also known for his work on Salles’ <em>The Motorcycle Diaries </em>and Sean Penn’s <em>Into the Wild</em> – the sepia-toned shots and the capturing of the open road, the sprawling freedom of the American landscape of the 1940s. But the latter pales in comparison with other works that do the same, like <em>Easy Rider</em> or <em>The Motorcycle Diaries, </em>and is not strong enough to counter the at times lackluster retelling and the over-emphasis on sex and drugs, which though an important part of the original, seem to be awarded greater prominence in the film, lacking any real context. The acting, with two notable exceptions – Garret Hedlund (as Dean Moriarty) and Viggo Mortensen (as Old Bull Lee, Kerouac’s fictional characterization of William Burroughs) – is adequate, but easily forgettable.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Hedlund captures Dean’s wild spirit and his madness, his semi-destructive passion for life and living in the moment, but he fails to elicit much sympathy. Without reading the book first, it is difficult to understand in the film what it is about Dean that gives him the ability to make people, especially Sal Paradise, inspired to jump over and even knock down the hurdles that society has erected on the road of life and to zip back and forth across the country. Unlike Dean Moriarty in the novel, Hedlund’s portrayal of the character doesn’t have the same captivating allure – his passion for living in the moment seems damaging less than inspiring.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In the novel, Dean Moriarty is a contradiction of sorts, but in the film he comes across as a one-dimensional conman. But it’s Mortensen’s bit performance that really steals the show – Mortensen so captures the drawl and persona of Burroughs that it is easy to forget that one is watching an actor in a film and not a William Burroughs home movie. Though Old Bull Lee only appears briefly in Kerouac’s novel, Mortensen’s portrayal in the film is so convincing that it is easy to wish he were the star, and the film were a biopic about William Burroughs. But, of course, then it wouldn’t be <em>On the Road.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3ontheroad.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 445px;" /></p> <p>  The performances of Sam Riley (Sal Paradise), Kristen Stewart (Marylou), Kirsten Dunst (Camille) and Tom Sturridge (Carlo Marx; the fictional Ginsberg) are not terrible, but neither are they particularly noteworthy. It is a struggle at times to buy Sam Riley as Sal; Sturridge captures the poetic Marx, but his obsession with Dean comes across as creepy; and Kristen Stewart, though she brings a certain sullen sexiness to the role of Marylou, often seems detached and, consequently, unbelievable in the role (there are some exceptions, such as the fun and raucous scene with Marylou and Dean dirty dancing to Charlie Parker’s “Salt Peanuts,” but these are rare).</p> <p>  </p> <p> Though there were some minor efforts to incorporate Kerouac’s passionate and explosive prose into the film (such as the gravelly, whisky-voiced Riley delivering the iconic lines, “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars . . . .”), there wasn’t enough of this. With less emphasis on the magic of the words and the essence of the main characters, their longings and their struggles against time and their search for meaning in the post-war U.S. of the 1940s, and with more explicit focus on the sex lives and drug uses of the main characters (devoid of much meaningful context), the plot seems not only like somewhat of a betrayal to the text, but it also comes across at times as dull, wandering and unfulfilled.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Also lacking are some of the memorable characters, like Remi Boncœur – the “tall, dark, handsome Frenchman” whose favorite insult is “Dostioffski” [Dostoevsky] – his early part in the book is absent from the film, and he appears only briefly at the end.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In all, Salles delivers some remarkable shots of Sal Paradise’s “life on the road,” impressive for a film with budgetary constraints (the budget was $25 million, but included in the production costs were payments to many of those involved in earlier, unsuccessful efforts to create the film over the past 45 years). Financial issues made it impossible to film in certain cities during inclement weather and also led to pay cuts for the actors. Kristen Stewart, for instance, accepted a $200,000 salary for the film after the budget was cut from $35 million to $25 million, a fraction of what she made in the<em> Twilight</em> films ($2 million for the first film in the series and $12.5 million for each of the <em>Breaking Dawn </em>installments). She was signed on four years ago, when Salles first accepted the project, and claimed to have stuck with it because of her strong affection for Kerouac’s novel, a shared affinity among many of the film’s stars.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4ontheroad.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 422px;" /></p> <p> When one adds to all of these other problems issues with distribution, it appears that Salles’ efforts may have been perhaps better abandoned at an earlier stage of the production – like other failed attempts to film Kerouac’s classic. While <em>On the Road </em>premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May of 2012, the film’s release date was repeatedly delayed and it did not reach U.S. audiences on a semi-mass scale until December 2012, when it was released in New York and Los Angeles for a limited time screening. After a couple of weeks the film was pulled from theatres and was subsequently released on IFC films video on-demand. To date it has brought in less than $9 million in box office revenue, with roughly $700,000 in domestic ticket sales. Although it is considered a classic American novel, the film has struggled to find appreciation with U.S. audiences. The film is set to be released on Blu-Ray and DVD on July 30, 2013. </p> <p>  </p> <p> Despite some strengths in cinematography, a wonderful soundtrack, and a few remarkable scenes and performances (notably Hedlund and Mortensen, but with some fine scenes featuring Stewart and Sturridge), the film lacks in depth and plot. It may very well be that Kerouac’s classic 1957 work <em>is</em> “unfilmable,” and Salles’ attempt may be as good as any (there is not really much to compare it against), but the film, overall, lacks what the novel does with language – something that cannot be easily translated to the silver screen – and it pays too much attention to the superficial elements of the novel, missing much of the work’s central meaning.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It glosses over the very important spiritual element of Sal Paradise and Sal and Dean’s search for meaning (against the forces of time and societal backlash) in the post-war culture of the 1940s, as they bounced back and forth across the free and expansive American landscape and penetrated the country’s southern border. The characters come across like caricatures, lacking depth and substance and, unlike Kerouac’s Sal and Dean, the film portrayals are difficult to sympathize with on a meaningful level. Salles’ work deserves recognition for effort, particularly against much adversity, but one can’t help but feel that it failed to live up to its potential.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/5ontheroad.jpg" style="width: 326px; height: 500px;" /></p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Benjamin Wright is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jack-kerouac" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jack kerouac</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/road" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">on the road</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/beats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the beats</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/dean-moriarty" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">dean moriarty</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/william-burroughs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">william burroughs</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drugs</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-culture" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug culture</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/allen-ginsberg" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">allen ginsberg</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/beatniks" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">beatniks</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/beat-literature" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">beat literature</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/neal-cassady" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">neal cassady</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Benjamin Wright </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 16 May 2013 13:47:59 +0000 tara 2863 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2439-filming-unfilmable-road-hits-big-screen#comments Geography of the Bay Area’s Drug Culture https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/geography-bay-area-s-drug-culture <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 12/14/2011 - 20:37</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/SFdrugculture.jpg?itok=KHLEpuag"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/SFdrugculture.jpg?itok=KHLEpuag" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong><em>Editor’s Note:</em></strong><em> Six years ago, New America Media’s Youth Outlook! published a story called “Geography of the Dope Game,” a breakdown of drug usage in the Bay Area that asked: What drugs are trending on Bay Area streets? Who are the people most likely to use them, and why? How does availability and pattern of use differ from community to community? Because so much has changed since that article appeared, New America Media’s Richmond Pulse, a youth-led media project, decided to produce an updated version. Richmond Pulse staff reporter Sean Shavers lives in West Oakland. He spoke to young people from various Bay Area neighborhoods, as well as la- enforcement officials and youth workers, to gain an understanding of today’s drug trends and how they impact health at a community level.</em></p> <p> </p> <p>From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/news/">New America Media</a> and <a href="http://richmondpulse.org/">Richmond Pulse</a>: OAKLAND, Calif.--Across the San Francisco Bay Area, <a href="http://www.rehabs.com/pro-talk-articles/when-teens-choose-to-use-top-6-reasons-teens-turn-to-alcohol-and-drugs/">young people are using all kinds of drugs</a> – well known, obscure, illegal and prescription. The wide variety of drugs now available on the streets offer users different highs at different prices.</p> <p> </p> <p>Although the names and effects of the drugs may vary, what’s consistent is that youth are a major segment of the population abusing them, often mixing multiple substances at the same time. And in Oakland, Richmond and other East Bay communities, it’s the prescription drugs that appear to be gaining popularity among youth.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Purple, Dro and Grand Daddy</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>On the streets of West Oakland, an assortment of drugs can be found, but the most common is still weed. “Purple,” “Dro” and “Grand Daddy” are among the common slang terms for marijuana around town. Marijuana is probably the most common drug used throughout the City of Oakland. It’s on every corner, and being caught with it by police usually results in a minor citation, at most.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Grimmies” or “Chewies” are forms of weed rolled in a “blunt” (cigar paper), sprinkled with cocaine and smoked. West Oakland locals also have what they call a “Belushi” -- named for Blues Brother John Belushi, who overdosed on the same mix of cocaine and brown heroin -- now a favorite of some drug-using youngsters.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Bo” is made from prescription cough syrup that contains promethazine and codeine. It’s usually mixed with a bottle of Sprite or with some other fruity drink. Some people mix weed and Bo by pouring the mixture on the weed and then smoking it. Others pour Bo on their cigarettes.</p> <p> </p> <p>Out of all these drugs, Bo is the most popular. It’s also the most expensive, because it’s the hardest to get a hold of. Although it can only be obtained with a prescription, that hasn't stopped folks from using or selling it. The drug is sold by the ounce in four-ounce increments at $40.</p> <p> </p> <p>Ecstasy is another substance that’s widely used throughout the Bay Area. But it’s the ways folks use it that separates the common thug from the suburban kid. In the ghetto, people usually pop these pills or smoke it with weed, whereas in the suburban areas, folks just snort it.</p> <p> </p> <p>“E-pills,” also referred to as “thizzles,” “pills” and “smackers,” are common among young drug users, and unlike pure ecstasy they can be a mixture of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and several other drugs.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Oakland drug scene is pretty much the same across the city, except for one particular drug: black-tar heroin. This substance is popular on the streets, from the youngsters to the O.Gs. (or “original gangsters”). They call this form of heroin “Chiva” or “Black Boy.”</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>San Francisco High on Cocaine, E-Pills</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Across the bridge in San Francisco, James, 20, from the Tenderloin, said the most common drugs used by the youth in his neighborhood are powder cocaine and e-pills. They may sniff the cocaine, as well as crunch the pill into a powdered form and sniff it. He says sniffing the pill boosts the high, giving it an instant effect rather than waiting 10 to 30 minutes for it to kick in.</p> <p> </p> <p>Pharmaceuticals like Vicodin and Volume are also used regularly in the Tenderloin, according to that neighborhood’s police captain, Joe Garrity.</p> <p> </p> <p>"In the Tenderloin area, we see more use of prescription drugs on the street: Oxycontin, hydrocodone, codeine, stuff like that,” Garrity said. “The young people are going toward the pill type drugs. Some still use the traditional drugs, but we're seeing more use of prescription pills.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Salvia, a psychoactive plant and a hallucinogen – one that is toxic -- is another drug that James says is on the rise in his neighborhood. Salvia is commonly smoked, but it can be eaten as well. Unlike the other drugs, Salvia is not illegal. James said that once he used the drug, and it felt as if his body was being sucked into a tube for 15 minutes. ''It has a mind of its own and seriously trips you out,” he recalled. “It costs about 15 bucks and can be found at any smoke shop.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Donny, 24, resides in San Francisco’s Mission District, where he spends most of his time rubbing tattooed elbows with the young and hip party crowd that has moved into the neighborhood. He said the people he knows there use a number of drugs, depending on the occasion. One is Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a psychedelic compound found naturally in trace amounts in plants, people and most mammals.</p> <p> </p> <p>“DMT is usually smoked and can resemble small yellow crystals in one form or be snorted in a powder in another. It’s not to be used recreationally because the trip can be indescribably intense,” Donny said.</p> <p> </p> <p>Ketamine or “K” is a pharmaceutical drug used in human and veterinary medicine, often given as a tranquilizer. It’s used in the party scene along with “Molly” (MDMA), a party drug that’s the pure form of ecstasy.</p> <p> </p> <p>Donny, however, added that Molly is “constantly being cut and mixed with other drugs, so the pure form is no longer there.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Adderall (an amphetamine), pharmaceutical, is used to treat people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. “A lot of stressed college kids use it,” said Donny. “They say it helps them focus. But like most prescription drugs, some kids just like the high.”</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Heroin Increase Surprises Richmond Police </strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Back across the Bay in Richmond, Police Captain Mark Gagan said that over the last five years the police department has seen an increase in the number of younger people experimenting with heroin.</p> <p> </p> <p>"Surprisingly,” Gagan said, “we see an increase of young people trying heroin, which is a disturbing trend because heroin is one of the most addictive narcotics. We see black tar heroin, which is a long high and a cheap high. Drugs like methamphetamine and crack are also popular,” he said.</p> <p> </p> <p>Khaled Elahi, who works with incarcerated youth at the Contra Costa Juvenile Hall, said the youngsters he speaks to mostly use weed, e-pills, powder cocaine and Bo, which he said is the most common drug used by the population he works with. Elahi likened Bo to liquid heroin and said, “These kids are drinking it like it’s water. They either sip it in a Sprite bottle, with fruit punch or straight out of the pharmacy bottle.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Khalid believes some of the violent crimes perpetrated in Richmond can be directly attributed to young people getting high on a number of drugs at once. “Sometimes these cats go all out and use two or three drugs at one time, in order to get a different range of effects,” he said. “So they may start off smoking weed, then they pour Bo on the blunt, then sniff some cocaine or just put the cocaine in the blunt.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Captain Gagan said the trade in street drugs also fuels community violence.</p> <p> </p> <p>"The nature of street-level narcotic sales is such that the dealers have to defend their territory with force and violence. And then whenever you have an illegal exchange of narcotics for money, you have the likelihood of either robberies or ripoffs,” he said.</p> <p> </p> <p>Economics aside, Gagan said the drugs themselves, especially certain combinations, will result in violence when taken by people who are already stressed out or on the edge.</p> <p> </p> <p>Gagan continued, "I think people who gravitate toward drugs and eventually abuse drugs are more prone to not be in control of their emotions or have other conflict resolution tools, making them more likely to be involved in assault or other endeavors like that. So yes, there is a definite correlation,” he said.</p> <p>--<a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2011/12/geography-of-the-san-francisco-bay-areas-dope-game.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/san-francisco-bay-area" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">San Francisco Bay Area</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drugs</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drug-culture" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drug culture</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/illegal-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">illegal drugs</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/prescription-drugs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">prescription drugs</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sean Shavers</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:37:00 +0000 tara 324 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/geography-bay-area-s-drug-culture#comments