Rumbles From The Vent: FIVE STEPS YOUR OVER

I pulled the syringe from the bag that contained my works. The needed was used and slightly bent. I tied off and watched the vein in my arm swell. I poked the needle in pulled back the plunger a little and watched the syringe fill slightly with blood and I knew I had hit pay dirt. I asked myself what in the hell are you doing? Why at this stage in my life, after all I have been through, do I want take a chance and get hooked on heroin? I pushed the plunger in anyway and felt the warm rush hit my neck, then the side of my face until finally the heavenly solution slid into my brain like a narcotic waterfall and it was now a complete body rush of ecstasy. Too late, at the age of 55 I’m already hooked.

Then I woke up. I lay there in bed and wondered where in the hell did that dream come from? I have never done heroin in my life, but in my dream it felt just like I had always imagined it would. Then it hit me, it was a combination of watching a couple episodes of A&E’s Intervention and shooting myself up in the belly with Lovenox the last couple of days after my latest bout with A-fib. I was taking the blood thinner Cumedadin, but the Lovenox injections gets the viscosity of the blood thinner quicker. The dream needle in my arm was the preloaded Lovenox syringe, I don’t know why I dreamed the needle was bent, I guess the dream's screenwriter thought it would be a nice touch.

I lay there reviewing the dream and thinking about the show Intervention. I always go through the same emotions when I watch that show. I start out being disgusted at the addict and feeling angry about the way they treat their loved ones. One such example had a young teenage heroin addict extorting drug money from her father. She had cleaned the family out completely but she didn’t care, she just wanted more. She had a fall back for money if her dad refused. She would sell herself to some old pervert older than her father, he knew she had done this in the past. When dad refused to give her money, she would tell him," fine, I’ll just go to my boyfriends house" there she could always get drug money from the old bastard.

I see addicts like that and I just want to wring their necks and throw them out in the street. Then towards the end of the show, they are faced with an intervention with a councilor and the family. More often than not, when faced with a complete cutoff of financial support and housing most will agree to enter treatment. Most times heroin and crack addicts relapse while in treatment or leave treatment early or relapse when they get back home. Some rebound and make it over the huge hurdle eventually, but a lot of heroin and crack heads just don’t make it and after spending most of the show being disgusted by these people, I end up feeling sorry for them.

I still don’t feel comfortable calling their condition a disease in order to excuse them of responsibility. Do they say someone who is hooked on cigarettes or Mountain Dews is suffering from a disease?

In my past I have abused all manner of legal and illegal substances and I never claimed I was diseased, just stupid.

They close the show with the results of the intervention and play the song “Five Steps Your Over” during the close out. It’s a really good song though I can’t figure out it's exact meaning. What follows is a clip from You Tube of the song and some stills from the show.