I was hanging out with this girl i was sort of dating one afternoon, drinking some beer and eating some xanax (probably a bar, maybe 3mg), when somehow the subject of heroin came up. Turns out-- we both use! so of course we think it of the utmost importance to slam some dope together.
we both get on our phones and she comes through first. we go pick up then head back to my place. she had acquired ballons of tar. having only done cut-to-shit practically worthless tar in denver during all my years of using, i didn't take her warnings on the strength of the tar seriously. she repeatedly cautioned me that it was some of the best shit she'd ever done.
arrogantly, i assume that she's just trying to impress me or that she doesn't know what good h really is. afterally, i had cut my teeth on the light tan powder that cincinatti has been famous for for the past decade and i'd been banging three or four bags of pretty decent east coast dope for some time at that point. she cautions me just to do one, but i assure her that with my tolerance i'll need at least two balloons to really get off.
big mistake. i remember letting her inject me (have no idea why she wanted to, but she did), tying me off with a thin purple scarf type deal she'd been wearing. the next memory i have is being bent over the toilet puking my innards out for hours on end. my abdominal muscles hurt so bad that i could barely move for days. as i would complain to my roommate, "when did i get kicked in the ribs by a horse?"
my roommate pieced it together for me. he was sitting in the living room when Eve came out of my room, obviously not ok, and let herself out the back door without saying a word. he thought something was probably up, but assumed we'd had a fight or something. after i didn't come out of my room for five or ten minutes he went to check on me. i was totally out, beginning to turn blue. he said that i was breathing, but just barely. he got me up and started walking me around the house, internally debating whether or not he should call the paramedics. he got me into the bathtub and blasted me with cold water, at which point i sort of regained consciousness and began the puking that i would continue practically unabted for the next 24 hours.
my memory was completely burnt. i could not remember anything, and i mean ANYTHING for the next three or four days. it was like my mind no longer had a 'record' function. it had also erased all memory of the week leading up to the OD. it was scary as fuck for me--especially since i had always had a near 100% phonographic memory-- but i can only imagine the trauma this put my poor friend through. i mean, we are practically brothers, had lived together for five years in three different states. it had been us against the world for most of our adult lives. i feel most bad for what i put him through. but he really was an angel, tending my retarded ass for the next week. i would wake up in the morning with no more knowledge than 'something horribly bad has happened' but i couldn't remember what. i would have to ask him when he woke up. this happened for the next three days.
eventually, over the course of the week my memory began to come back online, begin recording new information, and, though i never regained my phonographic memory, i have made vast strides in the ensuing 3 years. i would say that my memory is equal to that of your average, relatively intelligent person at this point, which is much much much more than i had for the weeks/months following the OD.
most upsetting, this was sort of the last straw for my friend. he had seen me ride the rollercoaster of recreational h use/addiction/clean/repeat too many times and couldn't do it anymore. who could blame him. he moved to texas the next month. i miss his companionship, regret losing his presence, tenfold more than i do the loss of my keen memory.
so, the lessons i've taken are 1) tar can be ridiculously fucking potent and 2) always, but always, do a tiny sample of any new dope that you come across, regardless of what you think your tolerance is. the variation between good and amazing dope is enough to kill you.