Books on opiates or drugs in general, junkies and addiction

[Raine (OP)]

Hey all!!

The drug movies thread made me want to start a drug books thread
since I don't think we have one here yet.
(I looked but didn't see it. If I missed it, I apologize!)

I love drug books as much if not more, than my drug movies.
I'm hoping we can compile a good list here and compare favorites also!

Some of the best or at least decent ones I can think of -

Skagboys and Trainspotting- both by Irvine Welsh
I liked Skagboys even better than Trainspotting. It gave more backstory and more of a picture of who they all were and how they got into their addictions.

Junky - William S. burroughs (obvious)
Heroin Diaries- Nikki Sixx
Tweak- Nic Sheff
More, now, again- Elizabeth Wurtzel
In her skin- (can't remember author name)
Dry- Augusten Burroughs (it's about alcohol mostly but it is relateable and I love his writing)
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson
Candy- (blanking on author)   (I haven't seen this movie either)
Diary of a drug fiend- Aleister Crowley


I'm probably forgetting some major ones but that's ok
That's why it's good to have input from others.

[Chip]

Robert Sabbag - Snowblind.

Robert Sabbag - Smokescreen.

[Raine (OP)]

Nice, I've never heard of either of those. I'll have to look this author up.

I thought of another- Tweaked. Diff author from "Tweak"
Tweaked was an addiction memoir about a gay man who was addicted to crystal. He ends up working at a rehab or detox type place and leading a group therapy session there. I recall liking the parts about the detox. I read it a long time ago though so the memory of the rest of it is hazy.

[MoeMentim]

infinite jest by david foster wallace isn't exclusively about drugs but weed and opiates play a large role.  the writing is great & held me all the way through but it is really long.

[LadyKalma]

Theres one i borrowed from amazon ebook before called The Howling Within. Its a tale of a girl in new orleans who is a junkie, lives through hurricane katrina, gets relocated elsewhere, whole bunch of good stuff. I dont remember the author but look it up, its he authors story so its true, and really compelling to read.

[bonedust]

^^^Yes! "Heroin, Hurricane Katrina and the Howling Within" by Eliza Player was great. I reread it again from time to time. Man, that chick went though some special hell. I won't ruin it but I will say it does include looting pharmacies with duffel bags when the shit hit the fan down there, of course.

[Raine (OP)]

^^^Yes! "Heroin, Hurricane Katrina and the Howling Within" by Eliza Player was great. I reread it again from time to time. Man, that chick went though some special hell. I won't ruin it but I will say it does include looting pharmacies with duffel bags when the shit hit the fan down there, of course.

There was a couple staying in the second hotel I stayed in after Katrina when I got out of Nola and they had a stolen truck and a duffel bag of bottles from a pharmacy they looted. They were, of course, a mess 24/7.  One of the maids at the hotel supposedly stole a decent amount of stuff from their room. Idk if it was true or not but the maid never came back to work after that.
I saw and experienced a decent amount of craziness during Katrina myself. That was the first time I felt heroin withdrawal too. I ended up in Florida and there was no dope where I was, just pharms and crystal.

I'll definitely have to check out that book!!

[LadyKalma]

Not a book about junkies, but a really excellent non-fiction book is called "Chasing the Scream" by Johan Hari. I just got through it was at my library. Its about the history of drug use around the world, mostly the opium trade, and how drug prohibition came about from Britain and the us pressuring everyone else into it.
The book also makes a clear case for drug decriminalization being the only possible solution to rampant deaths and incarceration. Common sense to us, but it was amazing to read it in a mainstream, ny times bestseller type book.

The book is incredibly well researched and there are references in the back to what sources he used from books, which pretty much serves as a whole nother reading list. Theres tens of them on that list i've been in hunt of now through my library book trading system within the state. The book also talks about taboos and how it used to be socially acceptable for high society people to inject morphine and later heroin but lower classes were looked down upon for doing so because they were thought to not have the mental ability to control themselves.

This book will get you thinking, it looks really long but I was still done in 3 days and wishing there was more, which is why theres the appendix of sources to read next lol.

[Griffin]

Diary of a Drug Fiend By Aliester Crowley is one of my favorite books about junkies and addiction, its about a guy who makes a decent amount of money who is addicted in the early 20th century and then it becomes illegal and harder to get and such, talks about the opium war and all kinds of other stuff that is awesome, amazing book.

Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton is a true story about an american guy who gets a life sentence in a prison in thailand its got some stuff about drugs in prison in thailand which is really cool. The heroin diaries by nikki sixx is really good, as is the Dirt about motley crue.

[MoeMentim]

way back in high school (80s) i read that book about belushi but don't recall the name of it.  someone probably mentioned already but any william burroughs or hunter thompson.  maybe there's some youngster hanging out that hasn't read them yet,

[wanderingmind]

infinite jest by david foster wallace isn't exclusively about drugs but weed and opiates play a large role.  the writing is great & held me all the way through but it is really long.

The book is great, but like you said...LOOOOONNNNNGGGGG as hell!  They also made a movie about the author - the movie was really interesting.  It's called, The End of the Tour.  Jason Segel plays David Foster Wallace and Jesse Eisenberg plays a journalist.  Oh, and Anna Chlumsky from My Girl is in it too.  I always wondered what happened to her.

The OP mentioned Candy by Luke Davies.  That's definitely one of the best books on dope IMO.  The movie is fucking phenomenal too.  I will always remember reading this book while on vacation in Costa Rica.  I'd started doing heroin (off and on) a couple months before going there.  I was in a terrible place emotionally as my GF had just broken up with me after 3 years.  A couple weeks before going to Costa Rica, I'd started IV'ing heroin.  I knew I absolutely must have opiates down there, so I did some brushing up on my spanish and started visiting pharmacies as soon as we got there.  I remember walking into the pharmacy and saying something like, "Mucho dolor."  The pharmacist looked at me like WTF???  I then started saying, "Morphina? Codeina?"  That got the appropriate response and I spent the whole two weeks nice and opiated, though quite depressed.  When we were staying in the mountainous region (where the awesome Costa Rican coffee comes from) I remember finding the book Candy.  I read the bio on the back and just knew it'd be great! 

Permanent Midnight by Jerry Stahl is really good.  Also a wonderful movie not a lot of people have seen.

[Chip]

I recently saw a doco on the guy who wrote Candy - it was his life and we meet the girl too.

he wrote and got his life back. a great story.

that book is called "The short life and fast times of John Belushi" - I read it too, Moe.

another good read.

[bonedust]

^^^Wanderingmind... I have to read Permanent Midnight but I did see the movie. Seeing Ben Stiller do a dramatic role was refreshing and he was really good in it. Remember that damn puppet Mr. Chompers lol!

I have so many books to read now.
I only saw the movie version of Candy back when it was on YouTube. The scene when he finds his older friend dead and the bottle of yellow liquid dope on the coffee table sticks in my head. I remember yelling at my phone while watching it "take i, take that shit!" haha

I remembered some good drug books...
"Needle" and "Needle Too: Junkies in Paradise"-by Craig Jordan Goodman (I used to talk to him, nice dude.
"Heavier Than Heaven" A biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross (Hands Down the best book on Kurt. Pretty much answers any and all questions. His family, friends, bandmates and Courtney helped in its making which definitely helps.)
"My Cross To Bear" by Gregg Allman. If you like The Allman Bros. Band and dope then you should like this book.
"Everything I Never Wanted To Be" by Dina Cucera. Pretty much covers her and her family who are all addicted to pretty much everything. She's a comedian so she takes a somewhat light approach to family addiction which made me laugh a lot cuz it reminded me of my family and I'm sure many of you can relate.

Pretty much every book I have is about drugs so when I remember more I will be back.

[Indy]

A long time ago, well 4-5 years ago, I think Nick it was, recommended "You Can't Win" by Jack Black (no not the douchebro actor). Its an autobiographical story about his life in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a hobo/"yegg" (safecracker, burglar, primarily rail travel based thief), and opium addict for much of his life. Its written plain but well, and absolutely gripping, Hemingway couldn't put you on the edge of your seat so well with a total lack of lexical circumlocution. Amazing book, and was actually one of Burroughs' biggest influences for Junky. Jack Black actually played a big role in the creation of parole and probation systems for prisoners, which these days may not be such a good thing heh, but back then was extremely progressive. He writes about his stints in jail and prison, from living like a made man where the inmates basically run the prison, to spending many months in a one room jailhouse with only the local sheriff for company,(i especially love how he doesn't villainous his jailors, and recognizes when they're good people, like the one in Canada), in Canada IIRC. Some of those old jails and prisons were ROUGH
back then. Like, no visits, no mail, no tv, few if any books, no heat or air conditioning, basically bread and water diet... But smoking allowed usually!

Damn I might actually have to re-read this if I can find it. Amazing book. It's so fascinating it goes by way too fast.

There is a text file of the whole book out there somewhere, at least there was a few years ago. Probably available for free if you're willing to search and are good with Google.

[Z]

The audio book version is on the pirate bay Indy.  Download an app like transmission to download it.  I like utorrent for a phone torrent downloader.


https://thepiratebay.ltd/torrent/15384705/You_Can_t_Win_-_Jack_Black_2013


I'm on an audio book kick when I drive lately.