harley89
Bluelighter
I would say, i am a fairly successful drug user. I go to work everyday, yet i use everyday. Im in college doing alot of coursework and classwork, still using. So, um yeah i guess so.
Are you a successful drug user?
- Thread starter NerdOnDrugs
- Start date
I'm on track to graduate with honors in a month from a top-5 liberal arts college. I am also captain of a club sports team, involve myself in numerous other groups and activities (including NORML of course %)) and am quite popular amongst both users and non-users. I am goddamned proud to say that I have accomplished all of this without ever being sober for more than one week in a row.
Unfortunately I have no real job prospects at the moment but that is the result of being an English major in a craptastic job market, not drugs
Unfortunately I have no real job prospects at the moment but that is the result of being an English major in a craptastic job market, not drugs
yearofthaboomerang
Bluelighter
Solid B+ average at Uni, dead-end job, but hey a job is a job right? I enjoy it anyway and it's easy.
Pay my own rent and haven't had any legal trouble cept for underage drinking.
Long-term relationship with a very nice lady who keeps me straight.
Could have some more money in the bank, but who isn't broke in college?
Pay my own rent and haven't had any legal trouble cept for underage drinking.
Long-term relationship with a very nice lady who keeps me straight.
Could have some more money in the bank, but who isn't broke in college?
diche
Bluelighter
I have an appartment, access to a wide array of substances, a decent job to carry me to the next year of classes; I couldnt be more content with myself. Of coarse I could be doing better, but I just like to chill.
yearofthaboomerang
Bluelighter
Dude, get off your high horse and off the acid. This is typical LSD-induced egomania garbage, which is not only annoying, but it appears to have made you really believe that your failures and lack of success according to what society at large views as successful is ok. Please man. Come back to reality. It's nice here!
I keep my GPA at above 3.2 at a decent college. Hardly anybody knows aside from most friends that im strung out and high on rx most of the time. People who don't know me too well have no idea that im fiending for erb/rx/etc. most of the time. I get by with a few $10/hr jobs and some support from family members. Im afraid everything could eventually unravel one day.
TheDictionary
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2008
- Messages
- 25
I think I have been fairly successful by most standards. I am 20 and been using drugs for about 5 years. I just finished my first year of school a public university where I have a 3.6 gpa and was asked to join the honors society which is good i guess. I have a beautiful girlfriend who smokes and drinks. I smoke weed almost every day and drink almost every weekend (during the school year). And every few weeks I play around with hallucinogens and opiates. Never had a problem with addiction ever. It's all about moderation in my opinion. I tend to lose respect for sober/straight edge people and I think most junkies are either dumb or just attention whores. Know your body, learn from other's experiences, and don't ever take the easy way out.
skinnyDog
Bluelighter
i'm a successful drug user, been at it for almost 18 yrs and only been pinched 3 times (all in NYC THANK God), been to rehab/detox 5 or 6 times, done the meth and subs thing and now i'm back to steady moderate dopin and all said and done i'm happier now. do i have to work twice as hard to fit in to society, pay bills, keep my girl happy? YES i do! i have been in the comm fishin business for 16 yrs (and love it!) and worked damn hard to keep a good reputation, and stay on top earning boats and been successful in doin that. i am lucky that there is some acceptance of drug use in the business, but i don't wear it on my sleeve and never leave the dock dopesick(learned the hard way!) -- have learned to knuckle down before the season begins and kick my habit (which i somewhat keep under control) we would definitely be alot better off financially if i was totally clean and i might be doin my own thing on the water now but my girl has seen both sides and she's alright with it as long as i am not a droolin zombie. after all this writin, when i add the pros and cons i think i'm successful-But would be moreso if i was totally straight all these yrs
rachamim
Bluelighter
As several have said, "success" is measured in different ways...
Materiel Success:
I currently own 2 businesses on my own (fertiliser manufacturing, and I grow and distribute, wholesale, and Ethnobotanical many here might have heard of, "Kratom").
In my family I have income from, well difficult to explain perhaps. I am a Jew, I am a member in my father's Clan. They structure the "Clan Association" based on a corporation and there is a forumla for shares, and full vestment scheduales. I am now fully vested and the income is generous.
I retired at age 40 from a Union Construction Trade (Excavator), and since it was NYC it was of the highest pade Excavating unions (my last dollars wage was just under 34 US per hours plus an almost 20 US per hour Supplemental for almost 54 US, cash per hour but with my full packagae, pension yada, yada and yada, I made 118 US per hour.,
I was able to retire because I was one of the men on WTC, from a couple of days after 9/11 until 2005, when we finished the new PATH (subway) Terminal in the main pit. WTC was a 7 Day job, meaning you worked 7 days a week, 12 hours a shift.
In Trades Unions you get so much more extra after 7 or 8 hours (depending on your Trade), then so much more on weekends, nights and so on. I was making, gross, just under 5,000 US every Thursday. That was in straight cash wages of 54, plus incentives on Over 8, and Weekends. Much more on my total package, etc.
My pension hit the right numbers in 2005, and I opted not to continue on that site, when the main phase ended, because 7 days a week was just too hard, even with 2 months off a year. I have a very young wife (I am 42, she is 25 now), and so went on the List as we call it, and took short term jobs which only put like 1400 in cash a week in my pocket.
I am a dual Israeli/American citizen, and like most Israeli-Jews, I was a soldier. In July of 2006 we went to war again in Lebanon, so I rushed home, and into the field, so that in the middle of July, 2006 I worked my last day as an Excavator. I had my wife still in NYC do my retirement papers for me.
I got a promotion to the equivalent of a US Captain, and a minor command position (Platoon CO). When the war finished in August, was offered a 1 year contract to revert to Active Duty.
In Israel, all soldiers serve 3 years between high school and university, then they go to University, while doing 1.5 month Reserve Duty annually (but you do not get call ed up ever year, you just need to be ready and willing).
So, I reverted to Active, and after the war spent 3 months picking up Hezbollah Cluster Bomblets all over Galilee, then re-deployed to a 30 day course for a new Command deployment, running a Check Point, and that is where I stayed.
Israeli men serve in uniform until age 56, but while I was running the Check Point, they changed the law so that combat soldiers (I was Infantry/Paratrooper) were held to a different time table. Based upon accrued Active Duty time over your career, plus actual combat service, you could be out at age 41.
I had, in the spring on 2002, a total of almost 9 years Active, and 7 and change in combat (4 actual wars, countless Ops) and so I was notified that if I chose, I could cashier out at a slightly higher rank, giving me a nicer check and benefits.
I put in and on June 30th, 2002 I was finished.
So, retired from my job, and the army.
Not to turn this into a book, but...
My wife is Filipina, and I had long ago promised her parents than when I finished my Army time, we would raise our family next to them, as many Filipino People prefer this, just like Jews.
Of course I thought it would be at age 56 hahaha, but never the less. We moved to Mindanao, in the Philippines.
My wife's family is very well off, and I have a big piece of their collective businesses (grain mills, farming, lumber, land), but also started 2 busineeses all in my name, a fertislier manufacturing business, and an ethno-botanical (Kratom) growing and whole sale distributorship.
This past autumn, 2008, I began working on 2 more businesses on my own (goat farm and specialty produce), which will keep me busy.
Education...
I did get a BS in Ethno-Botany, after starting as a simple Botany Major. In Israel, if you are a Professional Soldier (stay on after initial 3 year Active stint), as I was for some years, you are pretty much directed what to study though it often meshes somewhat with your interests.
Israel is very big on agriculture, so plant sciences it was. I eventually left after 6 years and change, and moved to the US seasonally, so changed my major to something I enjoyed alot more. I love anthropology and psychology, and so Ethno-Botany it was.
Only thing I am sad about there is that I did not finish my Masters, and also the institution left something to be desired (Ithaca).
Personal Life...
I was placed in an arranged marriage like many traditionally taised Jews, when I was 17, I went in the army at 16. I had 4 kids, 1 died. Today my eldeat living son just finished his Active Duty, and made me a grand dad at 42.
My other son and my daughter are Professional Soldiers, my son in an elite combat unit, and my daughter was an NCO on Border positions, but has begun moving up the food chain.
I was not in love with my wife, nor she with me, and so when I finished me 6 years and change, we divorced. Never had problems with her, we just never really cared for one another.
When I went to America I ended up fathering 3 more kids, with 3 other woman (niiiice), something I hate about myself but those were some very wild days, I had survived 2 serious war wounds, contracted an addiction and HCV (Hep-C), and...well...did not care what happened at that point.
2 live in the US (both teen boys), my daughter usually Lives in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, she is a young teen.
I married my best-friend's eldest daughter (my wife), when she was finishing high school, and we lived, as I said, seasonally in NYC but travelled often.
So, I would say mixed-bag in terms of success in my personal life.
Drug Use...and Health...
At age 17, I was serving in Lebanon, and was wounded by pieces of a rifle shell (bullet). It entered through the bottom of my jaw, shattered my jaw with micro-fissures, took out 3 teeth, ruined my mouth, tiny bit of my tongue came off, and settled in my sinuses.
I was given morphine, and was detozed, without problem
Then, 11 months later a mortar shell landed near my position and I took shrapnel to my side. At that point, even though it was minor compared to my first injury, I became addicted to morphine.
In those days they used to give every combat soldier two 20 mg. Syrettes of morphine. Most men traded them for cigarettes. I never touched tobacco in my life but you can bet I was one of the biggest purchaser's of cigarettes when we got Canteen orders!
Eventually they became scarcebecause addiction was becoming rampant in that war. I got very sick in Withdrawal. IF you think being "dope sick" in you home sucks, try it in a dry river bed with bullets and mtars popping off in 35F deree rain showers....
Luckily for me, or unluckily I suppose, I happend to be in Lebanon which then, like now, was a heroin source country (then it was huge). So, I became VERY addicted to very cheap and unadulterated #2 heriin (freebase).
Army ended up, when I was 20, making me get on methadone, and since then, 22 years ago, I have usually been on one form Of Opioid Substitution Therapy or another. In the US and Israel it has been methadone. In the Philippines, which does not have methadone, it has been morphine.
Israel now has Heroin maintenance because of soldiers like me but I only go home for short times these days.
Drugs have never interfered in my relationships. I have never hidden my addiction, neither have I had illicit usage for long periods of time. Maintenance allows stability so that I can say I have been succesful there as well.
I have had SOME problems from them though nothing related to use. Many people made money smuglling crap home from Lebanon. In my case I stupidly chipped in a few kilos of hashs, and we did as many do, put it in a tank.
Merkava Is and IIs have this little empty supplemental battery area on their rear skirts. You remove the Add-On armour plates, put a couple of shoeboxes of whatever inside, replace, spot weld or rivet and see you in Metulah or Rosh HaKikra.
Except...It was becoming endemic and in a random check we were had, it led back to me and I got 4 months in IDF Prison. It cost me my Security Rating, but luckily for me the war had killed the equivalent of 200,000 American soldiers in just 18 months. "Lucky for me"? I sound like a damn as*hole (nothing new haha).
I was a Command Sgt then, which is akin to a US Lt, and so lo and behold, I was restored to grace.
In my 4th year in the US, I began working for 1 of my uncles, who had a nice heroin operation in NY, NJ and Pennsylvania. They began siping at low level people and I ended up arrested with a personal use amount in NJ.
Problem though is that they only wanted to leverage me, and when I refused I ended up with a 4 year sentence on my 1st US charge, for 90 dolars worth of crap (heroin ans cocaine).
I should have had only 12 to 14 month inside but because of my family, I served 34 months, maxing-out, no parole. Good old NJ...
Health wise, I caught Hep-C from a re-used IV butterfly during one of my injuries in Lebanon. I do not even know how to get a register in a hypodermic, though I have had others inject me, it was rare and never without a clean syringe. Ergo, I am one of the rare folks who can honestly say that I did not catch Hep-C through dirty needles.
I am might be the only one who is also a junkie!
My Hep-C...This past autumn my Viral Load was 110,000 and I have Genome III, which is pretty rare in Europe and the Americas (I caught in Lebanon from an army needle). Genome III is 80% curable (80% can get totally cured in 24 weeks of treatment).
I went on Pegasys a Two Treament Push of chemotherapy and tablet, which is pegylated Interferon-B, injected 1 X per week. I took 1800 units. Pegasys also includes Ribivarin, which I took every day, 2 times a day, 1200 mgs total per day.
I showed great Reponse with a drop at 30 days to a 10,000 Load! A 100,000 unit drop.
Then I got my 90 day results, it had rebounded to 74,000!!!!!!!
That meant that the treatment ended for me, and I am not cured, though I managed a slight reduction. I have slight fibrosis (scarring) but good function and might live many more years, or I might be dead in 18 months.
I am healthy as a horse, thanks to the army and my physical occupation, BUT, that can change so I would have to say...
Very UNsuccessful in health.
Long post, but at 42 I have a longer life than many hahahaha...
Materiel Success:
I currently own 2 businesses on my own (fertiliser manufacturing, and I grow and distribute, wholesale, and Ethnobotanical many here might have heard of, "Kratom").
In my family I have income from, well difficult to explain perhaps. I am a Jew, I am a member in my father's Clan. They structure the "Clan Association" based on a corporation and there is a forumla for shares, and full vestment scheduales. I am now fully vested and the income is generous.
I retired at age 40 from a Union Construction Trade (Excavator), and since it was NYC it was of the highest pade Excavating unions (my last dollars wage was just under 34 US per hours plus an almost 20 US per hour Supplemental for almost 54 US, cash per hour but with my full packagae, pension yada, yada and yada, I made 118 US per hour.,
I was able to retire because I was one of the men on WTC, from a couple of days after 9/11 until 2005, when we finished the new PATH (subway) Terminal in the main pit. WTC was a 7 Day job, meaning you worked 7 days a week, 12 hours a shift.
In Trades Unions you get so much more extra after 7 or 8 hours (depending on your Trade), then so much more on weekends, nights and so on. I was making, gross, just under 5,000 US every Thursday. That was in straight cash wages of 54, plus incentives on Over 8, and Weekends. Much more on my total package, etc.
My pension hit the right numbers in 2005, and I opted not to continue on that site, when the main phase ended, because 7 days a week was just too hard, even with 2 months off a year. I have a very young wife (I am 42, she is 25 now), and so went on the List as we call it, and took short term jobs which only put like 1400 in cash a week in my pocket.
I am a dual Israeli/American citizen, and like most Israeli-Jews, I was a soldier. In July of 2006 we went to war again in Lebanon, so I rushed home, and into the field, so that in the middle of July, 2006 I worked my last day as an Excavator. I had my wife still in NYC do my retirement papers for me.
I got a promotion to the equivalent of a US Captain, and a minor command position (Platoon CO). When the war finished in August, was offered a 1 year contract to revert to Active Duty.
In Israel, all soldiers serve 3 years between high school and university, then they go to University, while doing 1.5 month Reserve Duty annually (but you do not get call ed up ever year, you just need to be ready and willing).
So, I reverted to Active, and after the war spent 3 months picking up Hezbollah Cluster Bomblets all over Galilee, then re-deployed to a 30 day course for a new Command deployment, running a Check Point, and that is where I stayed.
Israeli men serve in uniform until age 56, but while I was running the Check Point, they changed the law so that combat soldiers (I was Infantry/Paratrooper) were held to a different time table. Based upon accrued Active Duty time over your career, plus actual combat service, you could be out at age 41.
I had, in the spring on 2002, a total of almost 9 years Active, and 7 and change in combat (4 actual wars, countless Ops) and so I was notified that if I chose, I could cashier out at a slightly higher rank, giving me a nicer check and benefits.
I put in and on June 30th, 2002 I was finished.
So, retired from my job, and the army.
Not to turn this into a book, but...
My wife is Filipina, and I had long ago promised her parents than when I finished my Army time, we would raise our family next to them, as many Filipino People prefer this, just like Jews.
Of course I thought it would be at age 56 hahaha, but never the less. We moved to Mindanao, in the Philippines.
My wife's family is very well off, and I have a big piece of their collective businesses (grain mills, farming, lumber, land), but also started 2 busineeses all in my name, a fertislier manufacturing business, and an ethno-botanical (Kratom) growing and whole sale distributorship.
This past autumn, 2008, I began working on 2 more businesses on my own (goat farm and specialty produce), which will keep me busy.
Education...
I did get a BS in Ethno-Botany, after starting as a simple Botany Major. In Israel, if you are a Professional Soldier (stay on after initial 3 year Active stint), as I was for some years, you are pretty much directed what to study though it often meshes somewhat with your interests.
Israel is very big on agriculture, so plant sciences it was. I eventually left after 6 years and change, and moved to the US seasonally, so changed my major to something I enjoyed alot more. I love anthropology and psychology, and so Ethno-Botany it was.
Only thing I am sad about there is that I did not finish my Masters, and also the institution left something to be desired (Ithaca).
Personal Life...
I was placed in an arranged marriage like many traditionally taised Jews, when I was 17, I went in the army at 16. I had 4 kids, 1 died. Today my eldeat living son just finished his Active Duty, and made me a grand dad at 42.
My other son and my daughter are Professional Soldiers, my son in an elite combat unit, and my daughter was an NCO on Border positions, but has begun moving up the food chain.
I was not in love with my wife, nor she with me, and so when I finished me 6 years and change, we divorced. Never had problems with her, we just never really cared for one another.
When I went to America I ended up fathering 3 more kids, with 3 other woman (niiiice), something I hate about myself but those were some very wild days, I had survived 2 serious war wounds, contracted an addiction and HCV (Hep-C), and...well...did not care what happened at that point.
2 live in the US (both teen boys), my daughter usually Lives in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, she is a young teen.
I married my best-friend's eldest daughter (my wife), when she was finishing high school, and we lived, as I said, seasonally in NYC but travelled often.
So, I would say mixed-bag in terms of success in my personal life.
Drug Use...and Health...
At age 17, I was serving in Lebanon, and was wounded by pieces of a rifle shell (bullet). It entered through the bottom of my jaw, shattered my jaw with micro-fissures, took out 3 teeth, ruined my mouth, tiny bit of my tongue came off, and settled in my sinuses.
I was given morphine, and was detozed, without problem
Then, 11 months later a mortar shell landed near my position and I took shrapnel to my side. At that point, even though it was minor compared to my first injury, I became addicted to morphine.
In those days they used to give every combat soldier two 20 mg. Syrettes of morphine. Most men traded them for cigarettes. I never touched tobacco in my life but you can bet I was one of the biggest purchaser's of cigarettes when we got Canteen orders!
Eventually they became scarcebecause addiction was becoming rampant in that war. I got very sick in Withdrawal. IF you think being "dope sick" in you home sucks, try it in a dry river bed with bullets and mtars popping off in 35F deree rain showers....
Luckily for me, or unluckily I suppose, I happend to be in Lebanon which then, like now, was a heroin source country (then it was huge). So, I became VERY addicted to very cheap and unadulterated #2 heriin (freebase).
Army ended up, when I was 20, making me get on methadone, and since then, 22 years ago, I have usually been on one form Of Opioid Substitution Therapy or another. In the US and Israel it has been methadone. In the Philippines, which does not have methadone, it has been morphine.
Israel now has Heroin maintenance because of soldiers like me but I only go home for short times these days.
Drugs have never interfered in my relationships. I have never hidden my addiction, neither have I had illicit usage for long periods of time. Maintenance allows stability so that I can say I have been succesful there as well.
I have had SOME problems from them though nothing related to use. Many people made money smuglling crap home from Lebanon. In my case I stupidly chipped in a few kilos of hashs, and we did as many do, put it in a tank.
Merkava Is and IIs have this little empty supplemental battery area on their rear skirts. You remove the Add-On armour plates, put a couple of shoeboxes of whatever inside, replace, spot weld or rivet and see you in Metulah or Rosh HaKikra.
Except...It was becoming endemic and in a random check we were had, it led back to me and I got 4 months in IDF Prison. It cost me my Security Rating, but luckily for me the war had killed the equivalent of 200,000 American soldiers in just 18 months. "Lucky for me"? I sound like a damn as*hole (nothing new haha).
I was a Command Sgt then, which is akin to a US Lt, and so lo and behold, I was restored to grace.
In my 4th year in the US, I began working for 1 of my uncles, who had a nice heroin operation in NY, NJ and Pennsylvania. They began siping at low level people and I ended up arrested with a personal use amount in NJ.
Problem though is that they only wanted to leverage me, and when I refused I ended up with a 4 year sentence on my 1st US charge, for 90 dolars worth of crap (heroin ans cocaine).
I should have had only 12 to 14 month inside but because of my family, I served 34 months, maxing-out, no parole. Good old NJ...
Health wise, I caught Hep-C from a re-used IV butterfly during one of my injuries in Lebanon. I do not even know how to get a register in a hypodermic, though I have had others inject me, it was rare and never without a clean syringe. Ergo, I am one of the rare folks who can honestly say that I did not catch Hep-C through dirty needles.
I am might be the only one who is also a junkie!
My Hep-C...This past autumn my Viral Load was 110,000 and I have Genome III, which is pretty rare in Europe and the Americas (I caught in Lebanon from an army needle). Genome III is 80% curable (80% can get totally cured in 24 weeks of treatment).
I went on Pegasys a Two Treament Push of chemotherapy and tablet, which is pegylated Interferon-B, injected 1 X per week. I took 1800 units. Pegasys also includes Ribivarin, which I took every day, 2 times a day, 1200 mgs total per day.
I showed great Reponse with a drop at 30 days to a 10,000 Load! A 100,000 unit drop.
Then I got my 90 day results, it had rebounded to 74,000!!!!!!!
That meant that the treatment ended for me, and I am not cured, though I managed a slight reduction. I have slight fibrosis (scarring) but good function and might live many more years, or I might be dead in 18 months.
I am healthy as a horse, thanks to the army and my physical occupation, BUT, that can change so I would have to say...
Very UNsuccessful in health.
Long post, but at 42 I have a longer life than many hahahaha...
OpiodSlave
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2009
- Messages
- 260
I'm a heavy opiod user and a goddamn good writer.
Pretty_Diamonds
Bluelight Crew
I started using drugs at 14. I graduated high school a year early, worked about 10 different jobs. I just turned 18 a couple of months ago and I'm entering my second year of college. And have a pretty decent paying job at DKNY. =)
Sweet P
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2009
- Messages
- 5,243
Let's see... I'm 24 years old, unemployed, in massive debt, have very few friends, and I still live with my parents. I did go to university (and got very good grades) but due to my chronic inability to give a shit, I dropped out halfway through my degree. But in my defence, this isn't just because of drugs.
strattera69
Bluelighter
probably not
K'd O
Greenlighter
IMO Being succesful is being happy and u do what motivates you for a good reason like happyness and when you look at urself and say I did good
React.On.Impulse
Bluelighter
I'm going to be a senior in highschool. I have a good GPA, lots of friends and a bright future.
Now musically. I know a shit lot about music. I'm well versed in music theory. I can play 4 different instruments and sing. I'm in a band and perform solo sometimes. I can identify pretty much any genre of music after listening to a few songs by a certain band. I'm a huge music snob and damn proud of it. :D
Now musically. I know a shit lot about music. I'm well versed in music theory. I can play 4 different instruments and sing. I'm in a band and perform solo sometimes. I can identify pretty much any genre of music after listening to a few songs by a certain band. I'm a huge music snob and damn proud of it. :D
easyfrantic
Bluelighter
My drug use has been quite successful, except this week I've been kind of slacking off.
askaboutme
Bluelighter
html and css dont make sense unless your high!
TripAtristMos
Bluelighter
I am a DePaul University MBA graduate. I work for a major logistics company about 55 hrs a week in Chicago's financial district & make a decent buck. I used many if not every mainstream popular drug under the sun in the past. I currently use research chemicals (2ci, 2ce, 4-ho-dipt) hydrocodone, oxycodone, alcohol and occasional weed & coke.
I would say I'm satisfied therefore successful.
Nothing defines success but your own personal happiness. Unfortunately its not the drugs that drive people away from "society's" definition of success, its the personality within the individual and choices one makes daily. Everything from what cereal to eat to take out student loans to go to college.
thats just my view
I would say I'm satisfied therefore successful.
Nothing defines success but your own personal happiness. Unfortunately its not the drugs that drive people away from "society's" definition of success, its the personality within the individual and choices one makes daily. Everything from what cereal to eat to take out student loans to go to college.
thats just my view
This is an interesting question. In order to answer it you must first consider why you took drugs in the first place. I'm a heroin addict and I originally took opiates to make my severe depression more bearable. I haven't committed suicide, overdosed or contracted any diseases so I guess in that sense i'm a successful drug user. I have a good full time job (granted it took me months to find it) so I guess i'm better off than most.