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Speaking of Ludes ...

Did any of you know that Ben Stein wrote a novel called "Ludes" (which was made into the movie, "The Boost", starring James Woods and Sean Young) describing a young couple's descent from a comfortable middle-class lifestyle into addiction and despair?

I remember the movie...it was about coke frenzy wasn't it?

'our' ben stein? no. haven't heard of the book or movie, and i thought i'd seen most of Woods' work.

the problem with the 'descent in despair' approach is that it doesn't happen to a lot of people. it's kind of like watching 'reefer madness,' it's just too out there for anyone with real experience with marijuana to believe.

i knew a heroin addict who went to work everyday - as long as he had his heroin. it was the substitutions for heroin, like dilaudid, that made it hard for him to work. for that matter, i bet a lot of us work with people who drink more than is good for them, but still manage to keep a roof over their heads.

i'll be honest, i enjoyed doing what i did. none of us knows the future, but if i hadn't gotten married and beome pregnant, who knows what i'd be doing today. some people find god, i found a reason not to do drugs everytime i looked in my son's face. it was easy to stop.

but then, i think addictive personalities or biological tendencies is just something some people have. some people can do a ton of drugs and turn away from it in a moment. others can do a smaller amount, but wind up being addicted and screwing up their lives.

it's not that they don't love their kids or spouses, they just are trapped in the addiction. most addicts and alcoholics i've known have been in rehab several times in their lives. obviously there is something else working that keeps them going back to substance abuse, even tho the physical addiction is gone. that's probably the true addiction - the mental need for the drug after the physical need is gone. shoot, we don't even need to look at drugs - how many people have stopped smoking and picked it up again?

i'm sorry if this went way off the deep end. maybe you were just telling me about a movie?

Interesting, HB. I do love James Woods. We even communicated by CompuServe back in those days. And Sean Young? Wasn't she the woman who was rumored to have crazy-glued his....?

I remember going to Halloween parties in Hollywood and seeing couples wearing sheets cut into half-circles, one saying RORER and the other saying 715 or whatever that number was. And yes, I WAS too young to be there. LOL.