I did a lot of drugs in my youth. Started drinking at 14 or so, became a daily pot smoker at 17, and tried ecstasy, acid, mushrooms, and ketamine before I left high school. A couple years after that, cocaine became my thing. My habit never got to the point that I needed rehab, although I basically moved out of Boston to get away from my cocaine.
One reason my drug habit never escalated into dangerous territory was because I had a “no heroin” rule, and I’m pretty sure that’s because of all the movies I watched in the 1990s. As heroin spread from the cities to the suburbs, the movie began to reflect its infiltration into mainstream (read: white middle-class) society. Trainspotting, Requiem for a Dream, The Basketball Diaries, Killing Zoe, Basquiat, Traffic, even Pulp Fiction. Although the source material for some of these films comes from the ‘80s, it took the indie film movement of the ‘90s for them to flourish, and the impact on young American lives was immeasurable. These films delight in the allure of drug use before demonstrating the awful underbelly. They show in no uncertain terms how heroin will ruin your life.
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