I used to have a tight circle of 'drug friends', when in college and partying on X, phet (sulphate, not meth), the occasional hit of acid or 2-CB and shrooms, with pot a constant and ketamine around from time to time. Over the years, they either mostly quit or became hard-drinking cokeheads - and coke's a drug I've never really rated, save for a few high quality batches (I'm a former speed freak, and I think a lot of people who try speed first feel that coke's a vastly overrated, not to mention overpriced, drug) - while I got into downs and opiates in a big way. I still took part in the occasional reunion session on MDXX and K/a little coke, but other than with one lover, downs and opiates were never a sociable thing, for me, and I was careful not to get anyone else into them.
Now I've quit opiates other than codeine in migraine-cocktail 'scripts, I often find myself wishing I knew people I could enjoy 'just the occasional pill with' - or at least buy from, but I cut contact with all sources when cleaning up. Sometimes it's a struggle, when panhandled for change, not to ask 'hey, you know if there's any brown around, I'll pay for a hook-up?' (brown = UK slang for H), but I manage, not least because quality here's been so low in recent years than I've honestly got higher from high-dose DHC with potentiators than from a bag or two of rocky, cut-to-shit street H. But not knowing sources/having friends who share my tastes keeps me from slipping back into addiction. I know full well that if given the opportunity to chase any dragon, no matter how paltry and weak, or pop/swig/wear any opiate/opiod pill/linctus/patch, I'd be very unlikely to have the strength to say no.
Avoidance has its uses.
