The Truth About Teens and Heroin

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I ask if he means David Laffer. “Yeah,” he says. “Killed four people over some fuckin’ pills. Had a wife who could have gone out whoring. Could have made some bread a million different ways and instead he wastes four innocent people. Fucking dummy. Shit like that gives us all a bad rep.”

So what does he believe the right move is? Does he support the DEA crackdown on prescription pills? Carlos shrugs. “Don’t mean nothin’ to me,” he sighs. “Ain’t gonna stop dopefiends using dope. If they close down the supply of pills, junk is still gonna be around. I was 14 when I first shot dope and there was none of that OxyContin shit back then. If they really wanna stop people getting shot and locked up and getting crazy, then they should just sell to us direct. Collect some taxes on that shit.”

Carlos points in the general direction of the Elmhurst library. “They’re closing down libraries. The schools don’t have the shit they need. The buses don’t run, the traffic lights don’t work, and we’re borrowing money off the fuckin’ Chinese. Everybody’s crying poverty. Why not collect some tax offa dope sales and keep the libraries open? Give the kids some books! Teach ‘em not to live their lives the way I did.” Carlos winks at me then takes a sip of his coffee. “Then they won’t have to worry about motherfuckers like me stealing their shit to feed the fuckin' monkey.”

Tony O'Neill is the author of several novels, including Digging the Vein and Down and Out on Murder Mile and Sick City. He is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Hero of the Underground (with Jason Peter) and the Los Angeles Times bestseller Neon Angel (with Cherie Currie) and a regular contributor to The Fix who has interviewed Jerry Stahl and argued against abstinence, among many other topics.