By Sam Miller
Hi, my name is Sam Miller. I am a transfer student from Grays Harbor College. I’m 32 and I have lived in Olympia for 20 years. I have been completely sober for 7 years. I went to school to be a State licensed Chemical Dependency Professional. I worked in the field for 2 years, 1 year with primarily alcoholics. My second year was spent working at a methadone clinic counseling folks with severe Opiate Use Disorders, primarily Intravenous (IV) heroin users.
I attended the presentation “Ways to Thrive as Members of the Evergreen Community” on the 2nd day of orientation and found the information on Drugs and alcohol insufficient. I think folks experimenting with substances in a safe supportive environment can be fine and if they wish to experiment, can do so safely. And I hope that Students that find themselves in trouble can find the help they seek. I figured who’s better to speak on the drug scene in Olympia than an incoming student who has done all the drugs in the scene and lived (fucking barely) to talk about it.
WEED
Call it what you will, weed, trees, the chronic, Chicago hay, green lung lumber, whether you smoke it out of a pipe, a bong, Zig Zags, blunt wraps, or even a skull, marijuana is still the most used intoxicant/medicine at Evergreen State College. It’s not very dangerous, it’s not very expensive, and it’s legal now which, in my eyes, makes it boring to boot. I’m a Drug addict and I smoke weed like it’s a drug, to other folks it’s not a drug, which seems weird. Yes it’s natural, Yes it’s a plant, but there a lot of things that are natural that we don’t smoke. Cobras are natural. Ebola is natural. What’s more natural than Lava, you wanna smoke some Lava? NO DON’T IT’S TOO FUCKING HOT IT WILL BURN YOU!
What I’m trying to say is that if you smoke pot you may not be doing something else. What’s more interesting than pot? Almost fucking everything in the whole world. If you like to smoke pot sometimes to chill, rad, way to be chill. If you’re stoked that it’s such good medicine, great. But please shut the fuck up about it. Aspirin makes my back feel better but I don’t have a black light aspirin poster on my wall.
ALCOHOL
Alcohol is a great social lubricant for a huge portion of the population. It is socially accepted for the most part. Alcohol is like music, with lots of different types and styles that change through time. There’s Straight Aged Bourbon that warms your throat like Free Jazz. There’s a beautiful Merlot that floats up to your nose and brings up visions of piano recitals in amphitheaters under a waning crescent moon. Then there’s the beer bong full of PBR that your best bro Zach (Ya, that Zach) is holding. Gravity jams the cheap dumb syrup down your throat like the worst manufactured punk rock you’ve ever heard. Think Green Day and Blink-182 playing the Pepsi Legends stage at Warped Tour, that’s now sponsored by Crocs. Not too mention you’ll get to experience this pleasure again as Zach’s concoction exonerates itself from your once scholarly body.
By the way, there’s a chance that your Buddy Zach might kill himself or somebody else. According to the CDC 88,000 deaths a year can be attributed to excessive alcohol use. Chill. No but seriously if you can hang, you can hang, if alcohol use is a problem it can be ok, because there is help. The school has an amazing health center with folks I know and trust that would love to help you find a solution that works for you if you are concerned with your drinking. They might even be able to help your friend Zach, they have special facilities just for solid bros.
PSYCHEDELICS
Don’t be a dumbass. Shit gets weird. It might get rad, or sad, but shit gets weird.
MOLLY/ECSTASY
I never did that shit it looks dumb as fuck. Glow sticks are stupid and I’m too chill for robot music.
COCAINE
It’s around. It makes you feel very interesting. Feeling interesting and being interesting are very different. Cocaine comes in waves over Olympia. Usually it is cut with all kinds of bullshit. 5 years ago a large shipment of cocaine showed up in the northwest that was cut with Cattle De-Wormer. That’s fucked up, especially if you didn’t have any worms in the first place. There are folks that do cocaine occasionally and keep their shit straight, but uhhhhhh it’s really fucking rare. If you’re doing that shit once a month lookout cause once a week is a quick jump away, and after that…
Also when you buy cocaine you are supporting some real oppressive bullshit not just in our community, but in others too. There’s nothing more hypocritical than looking down on someone for eating meat, or littering and then snorting powder manufactured by slaves with the profits going to what amounts to genocide. (Also for the record I know hella people still involved with serious drugs and even they can’t find decent coke.)
METHAMPHETAMINE
It’s a fucked up drug with a fucked up scene. It always has been and always will be a value high. I’m being honest, the methamphetamine that is around right now is crazy. It’s strong and it’s cheap. It’s addictive as fuck, and it will destroy your life and probably some folks around you. However don’t talk shit. I did meth a lot. So did a lot of other great folks. I lived in Spanaway until I was 12, Rural Pierce and Thurston County will never be the same. Methamphetamine destroys beautiful families. It got me locked up for 6 months in the Yakima Jail. Also, don’t assume because someone is ‘high strung’ that they are high on Meth. Even if they are high on meth mind your own fucking business, if they aren’t fucking with you, or if you ain’t there to help, step the fuck off.
HEROIN/OPIOIDS
That slash is there for a reason. People really look down on IV drug users and that fucking sucks. Using IV heroin sucks. We are also in the midst of what can only be described as a heroin epidemic. Between 1999 and 2010, overdose deaths more than quadrupled nationally, rising from 4,030 to 16,651, according to the Center for Disease Control. It’s fucking awful. If you don’t believe me come downtown, I’ll introduce you to some cats that are caught up in that shit. I’ve been sober 7 years and I’ve lost so many good friends to this shit. I will lose a lot more too.
If you’re in it, there’s help. The Student Health Center at the school can make referrals to get support. And the way insurance is now it might be cheap or free. Also Prescription pills are just as dangerous. Sorry this one ain’t funny, I miss my friends.
If you want to help the Emma Goldman Youth Homeless Outreach Project (EGYHOP) is an amazing agency that helped me when I was homeless. If you are actively using right now they also provide a needle exchange and distribute Naloxone, a drug which when used correctly can reverse overdose, as well as information on how to use it.
