Here is an excerpt from my book. It is still a work (and title) in progress. I will keep you posted as it gets closer to the release date. This book will give a unique and eye-opening look into the world of drug addiction and organized crime, as well as establishing the fact that there IS hope after heroin and addiction.
If you do not know my history, you may read My Testimony for a brief overview. For now, it suffices to say that I was a hardcore heroin junkie and a Spanish-speaking member of multiple groups in the Mexican mafia/drug cartels.
Chapter 4 - A Day In The Life
My job involved working in several major cities across the midwest and the south, setting up new “shops” where we would sell black tar heroin (often cocaine, too).
Methamphetamine was always on the fringe of our world, but the people I aligned myself with did not traffic in that. Why not? 1) Because of the heat/attention which this drug draws and 2) The customer base associated with that drug is unstable (mid to low level dealers as well as users involved with this drug seem to draw problems, drama and attention like sugar brings flies).
Tools of the Trade - What It Takes To Be A Successful Junkie And Dealer
Heroin (the coke was used primarily for speedballers - coke and heroin mixers) users (generally speaking) are loyal customers and laid back. They do not want the attention anymore than the dealer does. It is a perfect world for those who enjoy keeping secrets, for the secrets are thick and deep here. Clandestine meetings, phone calls, codes, healthy and deserved paranoia, favor and sex exchanges, theft, immorality, lies and all forms of sin are the fabric that makes up the world of heroin users and dealers.
If you are a heroin user, chances are you can look God right in the eye and tell him that Up is Down, Black is White and the Moon is just the Sun at night… What’s more, you could probably make Him believe it. This is the level to which a “successful” addict must hone his or her ability to lie.
The successful heroin dealer is similar, but he must possess other skills, too: Ruthlessness, discernment (addicts are ALWAYS trying to run a game on the dealer), flexibility and a keen business sense are character qualities a dealer must have in addition to those “skills” all users develop.
Routine With Variations, Security Measures
Here is how a typical day would go for me, as a heroin user and dealer. The “routine” would vary from city to city once I had established a new business. Establishing a new business is a completely different story, which I will relate to you at another time.
I must explain to you that “routine” is a dangerous word and way of being for a dealer. You must always look over your shoulder, approach each deal and situation from a different perspective and keep your customers guessing. My name often changed from city to city, but that is superficial. Where you met each customer needed to change, regularly. How fast (or slow) and what time you’d show up would have to be fluid. These are more of the security measures, found in my daily “routine”.
Monday through Saturday, business hours were around 6:00 to 7:00 A.M. until 9:00 or 10:00 P.M. Once I was “In the street” that was where I would stay, returning home only in case of emergencies or to “re-up” (get more drugs in case I ran out). This was a security measure, to decrease the amount of traffic coming in and out of where I lived.
On that note, it was critical that none of my customers had any knowledge of where I lived. That would be inviting trouble. As loyal and laid-back as a heroin customer could be, they were still a risk to security (especially when they were broke and dope-sick). Also, if one of them was arrested (doing whatever they did to have the money for their daily habit), the chance that one of them may “rat you out” went up, too. That was how I was eventually busted - but that is another story for another time.
Hiring A Workforce, Customer Contribution
Later, as business progressed and I became mostly independent from the cartels (still with connections, however), I would send two “shifts” of hired Mexicans out daily (shift change being around 3:00 P.M.), making it less likely for one to slip up and forget your security procedures due to fatigue. I could pay these guys from $250 to $400 a week and they would work 7 days a week, about 8 hours a day each. Of course their rent was paid (they lived with me) and I gave them a food allowance during the hours they were working, too.
At home, the refrigerator and cabinets were usually stocked. Our customer base furnished most of our expendables (toiletries and such) as well as clothing needs. We had customers who shoplifted (boosters), wrote bad checks and robbed people, places and things. Some were prostitutes, panhandlers and most kind of illegal profession you can imagine.
Many of my customers had straight jobs, too. In various cities, I have had fast food workers, schoolteachers, musicians and music teachers, construction workers, strippers, disabled people, lawyers and a plethora of other legitimate professionals as daily customers. Heroin is definitely no respecter of persons or professions. With all these resources, we could barter miniscule portions of “product” (heroin) for goods and services, paying a fraction (usually less than ten percent) of what the actual value of a good or service really cost on the retail market.
4:30 A.M. - Wake-Up, Do It All Over (again)
This is my day as a user and dealer, so we will start (again) with that premise. I would wake up around 4:30 or 5:00 A.M., shave (shower) and get dressed. Of course before any of that happened, the first thing I did was to get “fixed” in the morning. I would cook up about a quarter of a gram (two to three balloons) of tar and try to find a vein. As time was crucial (I had to be in the street by 6:00 when my customers started calling), I could only spend maybe a half and hour or so searching for a site to get it in me. If I had not found one by then, I would have to inject the dope into a muscle. This is slower and not as effective, but within an hour or so, the morning dope sickness has dissipated, for the most part.
More often than not (as my addiction progressed) this was the case and it led to a lot of frustration. Sometimes at night (especially when I would speedball and it was necessary to find a vein for it to work - coke is useless in the muscle without a vein - you get all of the undesired effects and infections without the rush which is the reason you are using it in the first place), I would spend hours and hours (literally four or more hours, sometimes) sitting on a toilet looking for a vein. I remember sitting in the bathroom of a Comfort Inn in Indianapolis once for nearly the entire night looking. I was so angry and frustrated at one point, I cried.
6:00 A.M. - Time To Go To Work
Therefore, I usually pulled out of the driveway at 6:00 A.M. and often the first call from a customer came in immediately thereafter. I used a pager/beeper system, never giving out the direct number to my cell phone, either. In any case, the phones and beepers were all prepaid service devices under false names. My customer knew that I could be counted on to work within the hours I had established. When I was “on”, I was “on”. However, they also knew that 6:00 A.M. meant 6:00 A.M., not 5:50 A.M. and surely not 3:00 A.M. I never answered the pager after my evening hours were finished, either. There were several reasons for this. First, I had to have time to rest. In addition, working at night when there is less “normal” traffic in the streets (when the cops are watching for drunks and suspicious activity) is dangerous. This is another reason why meth was just not an option for me to sell. The customers are up all the time, wanting it when they want it and they think too much. They would probably figure out where you live while they were tweaking.
In the mornings, I would have steady business until about 9 or 10. Then it would slack off until around noon, usually. It was during this time when I would often load up another “rig” (syringe) and find a place (public bathroom, park, sometimes a customers house - but not often, or wherever (even in the car, sometimes) and hit myself again.
Side-Note: Functioning on Opiates and Long-Term Effects
At this point, you may wonder how I functioned with so much of this drug (heroin) in my system. Especially when I did not do speedballs, often. Speedballs can help keep one alert, but usually I did not use them.
Here is what you need to understand: At some point, opiates (heroin and opiate-based drugs like codeine (Tylenol 3-4), hydrocodone (Vicodin, Lortab and Oxycontin), morphine and hydromorphone (Dilaudid)) lose their effectiveness as a narcotic substance. When the body adjusts and builds a tolerance to them, it forms a dependency upon the substance, which it needs to function in its “normal” capacity. Without it, withdraw and the effects of the sickness involved control the users life and actions.
The rational decision to “not use” the substance has been taken away from the user at this point. Often an extended, forced sobriety or clean period is the only thing that can bring the user back to his or her senses and sanity (hopefully). An arrest, incarceration, intervention (followed by a long-term - 30 days to a year - treatment) or something equally drastic and life altering provides the opiate addict with his best chance to leave the drug behind.
Short-term detoxification and treatment programs do not give the opiate addict a realistic chance for maintained sobriety. These are wonderful options as long as they are followed (immediately) by a long-term, controlled environment in which the opiate addict can learn new life skills. This gives the addicts body a sufficient amount of time to clear the body and brain alike from the drug and its effect. Once he or she finally sees that they do not have to wake up sick every day and a semi to completely healthy life and lifestyle can be a reality for them, they will choose to wake up and smell the coffee.
More to come...
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