Heroin
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A Letter to Eric
What follows is a love letter to my twenty-six-year-old brother Eric, written shortly after he overdosed on heroin. He survived.
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On Loving and Leaving New York: Home
Driving down Second Avenue, we saw the usuals: skater kids and college students, queens and models and junkies. My heart hurt more and more. The landmarks of my most troubled memories now filled my heart with longing. I even missed…
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Albums of our Lives: Rufus Wainwright’s Poses
If I had written a list of pros and cons, I might have seen how moving to Austin from Seattle with a boyfriend who had just kicked heroin, and with stripping as my only job prospect, was not a recipe…
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The Optimism of Being a Dope Fiend
I remember clearly the first time my best friend Chelsea and I decided to play at prostitution.
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Vancouver’s Bold War on Drugs
For many years Vancouver has had a serious heroin addiction. So it’s heartening to see that one of the city’s boldest strategies for confronting the problem, launched eight years ago, is continuing to meet with serious success: Vancouver’s government-backed “supervised…
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Post-Young: The Junky List (or the Incredible Weirdness of Not Being Dead)
At seventeen, all I wanted was to be a famous junky. Like all my heroes. I never actually thought I’d make it.