Why is the misery of heroin addiction so romanticized in media?

[cowboycurtis]

Why is it that something so inherently bad for society and for the individual is seen as so tragically hip? I have to admit I’m guilty of idolizing heroin and those I looked up to that I ultimately found out used heroin and eventually became obsessed with using the substance myself. It is clear that there is no glamour in this lifestyle and yet, compared to other hard drugs, it is portrayed as something almost “cool”. I feel like the whole “heroin chic” phenomenon could never happen with drugs like meth or coke and I don’t quite understand why. Any insights?

 

[supersonic89]

I think it's only romanticized on musicians (jazz and grunge especially). For example, the time when David Bowie lived on cocaine and milk is also very romanticized, although he released very good music in those days (The Thin White Duke era. Station to Station is a masterpiece)

 

[Jabberwocky]

yeah there's plenty of films where it looks horrendous. i guess with musicians you just hear the art and don't see the impact. in my worst using i could only listen to musicians who were addicted to hard drugs and sang about it, but it wasn't to romanticise it its because i'd lost the ability to identify with anyone else. but, i'd massively romanticise the subculture most of those artists came from- the folk punks in the states who ride trains all the time. i knew intellectually it would be awful and so dull but the artists don't portray it that way.

even with musicians- somehow people romanticise it with pete doherty but i don't get the same impression re amy winehouse (maybe a gender thing?)

 

[cowboycurtis]

I fucking love that album @supersonic89!

@chinup That’s kind of the crowd I fell in with when I started using: those damn train kids from the States. Crust punks. And as for the difference between Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse, I think that kind of reinforces my point on how heroin has this effect more so than other hard drugs. It’s silly to glamorize something with such life-altering effects anyway.

 

[Jabberwocky]

oh bloody hell- what was it actually like? was it mostly rich kids with parents to fall back on if it got too much? i got put off it when i read a thread on that crusty forum i forget the name of about how to get rid of lice without access to proper washing facilities.

not gonna lie still love that music 'from here to utopia' by pat the bunny was a massive inspiration while i was in rehab:

'my friend William came to me with a message of hope
It went: "Fuck you and everything that you think you know
If you don't step outside the things that you believe
They're gonna kill you."
He said: "You think no one's gonna stop you from dying young and miserable? You're right!
If you want something better, you gotta put that shit aside." '

not particularly astounding poetry or anything but a good description of where to start if you want your life to get better.

 

[cowboycurtis]

@chinup
Ya definitely not rich kids. Usually came from pretty troubled homes except for me. I wasn’t rich either just middle class with a dead father and something to prove. The train hopping was always the most fascinating for me. I could tell you who a lot of those people whose aliases are scrawled across boxcars are here in the states. Being dirty is just part of the game. Unfortunately a lot of them are dead now.

 

[Jabberwocky]

ha well i will tell my boyfriend that next time i speak to him. he is adamant that anything he doesn't like is inauthentic and it bugs the fucking hell out of me but with no evidence either way i usually just agree with what he says cos he thinks he knows everything.

i want you to tell me!! i'm fascinated by the whole thing. it sounds so freeing to just leave your fixed address and go wherever whims take you but the reality must be way harsher. like i tried begging once for like 30s before the humiliation got too much and i never tried again, so having to beg for everything or find odd jobs wherever you go must weight heavily after a while.

riding trains for me sounds like it would be excited when you actually get on one, for like one minute, then stuck for like 8 hours with no shelter, possibly in boiling heat, no water or facilities, constantly wary of getting caught and thrown off so you probably can't even really enjoy whatever drugs you have on you.

 

[Joey]

The tortured artist archetype had always been romanticized. In real life theyre treated like hell lime theyre losers for being lowly addicts mostly. Unless youre fucking kurt cobain, and even he had his tough love dropped the baby intervention before he killed himself over it.

 

[cowboycurtis]

@chinup See that’s the crazy thing about it. A lot of people hop off to find water and die in the desert somewhere when the train leaves. The U.S. is so massive that a lot of people don’t realize how much vastly unused space there is. The rails and tracks that carry these trains are, more or less, in the same spot as when they were put originally in the 19th century. There are a lot of ghost towns that popped up along the rails specifically to build them, especially in like Nevada, California, Arizona, etc. that haven’t been seen by anyone other than train operators for 200 years because there’s no roads to access them since cars didn’t exist back then. That is one of the coolest parts of riding freight trains. It is EXTREMELY dangerous though and you really need to know what you’re doing.

 

[Jabberwocky]

fucking hell! do they not like check the routes before getting on so as to at least know where you will be passing that you could potentially get off if you don't wanna go the whole way? i can see if you're really thirsty it would be tempting to get off earlier but how is getting off on your own in the desert ever supposed to look like a good idea?!?

that is nuts about those towns. i went to a couple of ghost towns when i lived in california that were from the gold rush, but obviously those were accessible by car.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Why is it that something so inherently bad for society and for the individual is seen as so tragically hip? I have to admit I’m guilty of idolizing heroin and those I looked up to that I ultimately found out used heroin and eventually became obsessed with using the substance myself. It is clear that there is no glamour in this lifestyle and yet, compared to other hard drugs, it is portrayed as something almost “cool”. I feel like the whole “heroin chic” phenomenon could never happen with drugs like meth or coke and I don’t quite understand why. Any insights?

Because for many people (myself included), forbidden fruit is the most desirable.

Heroin is probably the most forbidden of all bad fruit, which gives it an allure like no other, especially when romanticised through books, films and music.

Jazz was seen as cool, and many jazz musicians had an affinity with opiates.

Films such as 'The man with the golden arm', 'Christiana F'., 'Pulp Fiction', 'Trainspotting' etc. also glamourise heroin by showing just how bad it is.

Writers like William S Burroughs who couldn't write a coherent sentence to save his life, but becane a legend just because he was a junkie.

I must admit that a very early trigger for me was 'Cold Turkey' by The Plastic Ono Band (John Lennon). How can something that sounds so horrible be so fascinating?

@chinup I think the difference between Pete Docherty and Amy Winehouse (apart from him being a prick and Amy being a genius) is that she seemed to be more renowned for her alcoholism. Alcohol isn't forbidden, therefore, it's just not as interesting.

However, I dont think it's true that the 'heroin chic' phenomenon doesn't translate to other drugs. There was definitely a 'Cocaine chic' vibe in the 70s and 80s...

 

[somnilicious]

I used to romanticize heroin. My teenage years were the 90's grunge era and movies like Trainspotting and Basketball Diaries were in the theater. I later loved the Libertines and Babyshambles(still do) but now that I've lived the life for 20+yrs I want nothing to do with it. When I first started using there was a very small # of heroin addicts in my city and at the methadone clinic. We thought we were bad ass rebels, who dared to do and experience things that others only dreamed of while they were living vicariously through cinematic features. We were artists, bohemian, poets if you will....

The reality is that every homeless, fuckwit, ex-con, lowlife, prison tatted, idiot in a hundred mile square radius now stands in line with me at the methadone clinic for hours everyday bragging about how fire their fentanyl connect is in broken, unintelligible, hipster-con jive.... Sorry... Not looking down on the homeless, addicts or people who have fallen on hard times but there is some real winners on the team for sure and having to spend non-socially distant airspace with them for 2-3hrs everyday can be exhausting. I almost got in a fight with a guy yesterday because he was apparently to good to wait in line like everybody else(daily occurrence).... Fentanyl and this weird molly stuff that all the homeless junkies use that makes them twitch and talk to themselves have to be two of the least romantic drugs on earth.

They really need to do something about the methadone clinics and their restrictions because it's a cluster fuck, covid spreading mess.

 

[cowboycurtis]

Because for many people (myself included), forbidden fruit is the most desirable.

Heroin is probably the most forbidden of all bad fruit, which gives it an allure like no other, especially when romanticised through books, films and music.

Jazz was seen as cool, and many jazz musicians had an affinity with opiates.

Films such as 'The man with the golden arm', 'Christiana F'., 'Pulp Fiction', 'Trainspotting' etc. also glamourise heroin by showing just how bad it is.

Writers like William S Burroughs who couldn't write a coherent sentence to save his life, but becane a legend just because he was a junkie.

I must admit that a very early trigger for me was 'Cold Turkey' by The Plastic Ono Band (John Lennon). How can something that sounds so horrible be so fascinating?

@chinup I think the difference between Pete Docherty and Amy Winehouse (apart from him being a prick and Amy being a genius) is that she seemed to be more renowned for her alcoholism. Alcohol isn't forbidden, therefore, it's just not as interesting.

However, I dont think it's true that the 'heroin chic' phenomenon doesn't translate to other drugs. There was definitely a 'Cocaine chic' vibe in the 70s and 80s...

Wait so that means I’m cool? Sweet!

I must admit I have to agree with the existence of “cocaine chic” to an extent.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Furthermore, people on heroin have a confident, couldn't give a fuck aloofness about them (when they're not gouching their tits off). Their constricted pupils look like vampire eyes, and vampires have been romanticised for decades.

I used to feel so fuckin superior to those humans when I was on gear.


Now I just feel like a twat...

 

[cowboycurtis]

fucking hell! do they not like check the routes before getting on so as to at least know where you will be passing that you could potentially get off if you don't wanna go the whole way? i can see if you're really thirsty it would be tempting to get off earlier but how is getting off on your own in the desert ever supposed to look like a good idea?!?

that is nuts about those towns. i went to a couple of ghost towns when i lived in california that were from the gold rush, but obviously those were accessible by car.

It’s not always that easy to access a detailed itinerary of all the trains. And sometimes, even if you do know, you might try to run to fill up your jug and not make it back in time before the train leaves. There’s actually an organization, though it’s considered a crime gang by the FBI, called the Freight Train Riders of America, formerly known as Fuck The Reagan Administration or FTRA. They publish a PDF booklet of schedules and locations and itineraries even info down to like the location of a hole in a fence, or at least they used to. It’s like a manual for riding freight trains. Being a hobo is a lost art. It is like the coolest fucking experience though.

 

[cowboycurtis]

One time when we were riding we were going through this town and saw this dude kind of stumbling along the top of this bridge we were about to pass under and there was not a lot of clearance. Next thing we know he falls off and, though by that time our view was obscured, we’re pretty sure he got hit and likely chopped in half by the train going under this bridge. We even heard something bounce along the top of the train like something had fallen on it. Pretty sure he was either drunk or committing suicide. We were freaking out though. We didn’t know whether to like alert someone or what. I mean we were already committing a crime by being there so what were we gonna do? Luckily the train stopped about an hour later and we bounced the fuck out of there. Never heard anything about it. That’s probably my craziest story. I should make a thread about train hopping.

 

[4meSM]

Always thought it was because of the book "Junky" by William Boroughs. I think he was the one who coined the heroin junky stereotype and now it's super integrated into our culture. That romantic view of heroin as an almost supernatural entity who completely takes over the life of the user and forces him to do pretty much whatever it takes to get more and more heroin, the user is transformed into the junky archetype.
It somehow seems like bad things are even prefered by the junky, like they have to act in the worst possible ways in order to justify the magestic feeling provided by heroin.
I think that could qualify as drug determinism or something like that, the idea that heroin will send you to heaven (best feeling know to mankind, etc...) but will also turn you into everything society hates.

People have been doing opiates for thousands of years for both medicinal and recreational reasons. The huge addictive potential of opioids shouldn't be underestimated but I don't think an addict is the same as a "junky".

One issue is that "junky" is also an identity, something one can even be proud of in a very weird way, it provides relief against the uncertainties of life which can be very hard do deal with...
The junky doesn't need worry about what he's going to do tomorrow, he has a very clear objective which gives him meaning and a sense of responsibility... Only 2 possibilities remain, either you get enough heroin = bliss, or you don't get enough = suffer.
Very romantic stuff, an heroine coming to save you... It's not only romantic but a mixture of drama and romance or love and hate, seems to make it even more appealing.

 

[JessFR]

The reality is that every homeless, fuckwit, ex-con, lowlife, prison tatted, idiot in a hundred mile square radius now stands in line with me at the methadone clinic for hours everyday bragging about how fire their fentanyl connect is in broken, unintelligible, hipster-con jive....

Hours? Christ id forgotten how bad clinics are.

When I went to a free public methadone clinic, we often had to wait up to an hour, but not usually multiple hours. And they didn't give anyone takeaways so we had to wait that 20 minutes to an hour and a half every day it was fucked.

Now I go to a private pharmacy (I live in australia), the longest I have to wait is maybe 10 minutes tops. Usually I get my dose straight away. Plus I only have to go in 3 days a week. Not free though.

Clinics fucking suck.

 

[somnilicious]

Hours? Christ id forgotten how bad clinics are.

When I went to a free public methadone clinic, we often had to wait up to an hour, but not usually multiple hours. And they didn't give anyone takeaways so we had to wait that 20 minutes to an hour and a half every day it was fucked.

Now I go to a private pharmacy (I live in australia), the longest I have to wait is maybe 10 minutes tops. Usually I get my dose straight away. Plus I only have to go in 3 days a week. Not free though.

Clinics fucking suck.

I used to go to a private doc. It used to be a lot better but after covid it turned into a mess and we are the only government clinic in Orlando, so they are the only ones that received the government grants for free methadone. This led to mass exodus' from the other clinics to ours. I waited 3hrs the other day. It is usually an HR +/- a bit.

I'm hoping to get a couple of take homes in a couple of weeks.

 

[Burnt Offerings]

I don't think that heroin addiction is really romanticized in media. TBH the term "heroin chic" has always seemed extremely bizarre to me, it's as ridiculous as "crack chic" or "meth chic", and I associate it with the early 1990s & associated music, grunge in particular. I was very young during that era and it's very difficult for me to remember what popular culture was like then, though. Some of the films from that general era (like the previously mentioned "Trainspotting" and "The Basketball Diaries") definitely do not romanticize heroin and heroin use...in fact "Trainspotting" in particular is one of the most true-to-life depictions I've ever seen about the motivations, mind-set and social relationships that opioid abusers have...it definitely did not "romanticize" heroin/heroin abuse, IMO.

Pretty much nothing from popular culture nowadays heroin or the use of heroin. Almost 100% of the time it's portrayed as the sad, final chapter of someone's long descent into opioid abuse, usually initiated by abuse of Rx opioids.