“Baltimore leads the nation in per-capita heroin use”—DEA

Although I moved to Baltimore city almost 5 years ago, it wasn’t until I read Donald Goines’ “Dopefiend” that I could even conceptualize the epidemic that i come in contact with every single day. i knew that heroin is a drug that people shoot up their arms with needles and i knew that most cities have methodone treatment programs which essentially get patients addicted to a substance that only the program dishes out, but that’s about it. once i moved to baltimore i became familiar with the term “nodding off”, the habit of heroin addicts to fall asleep on their feet and strangely, although while standing asleep, their knees buckle under them, and they make a steady decline to the ground, its a well known fact that they neither 1)fall, 2) hit the ground, or 3) actually wake up.

this lady was on the subway when i boarded at the first stop of the line. she nooded the entire time she was on the train, about 2 stops. finally, the automatic annoucement voice jarred her awake and she literally jumped from the train as soon as the doors opened. i wonder if that was her stop.

this man was apparently standing at the bus stop near our apartment and was attempting to eat the remainder of a bag of chips. however, each time he dug in the bag to get the last of the cumbs in the bottom, he would “nodd off” before he actually get chips into his mouth. the little crumbs would fall on the ground and the man would wake up just enough to start the process over. although i didn’t watch him after i passed him on the sidewalk, i guarantee that he never fell. eventually, he probably sat on the bench and got a good nod on, until his high wore off. then i’m guessing that he got somehow mobile and went in search of the next hit.

Tif has written about nodding off quite a few times.