Junky is the very real account of Burroughs misadventures with opium and many of it's derivatives (morphine, heroin, pantopon, codeine, dionine to name a few). A myriad of dark but intriguing characters emerge from the sewers with the junk itself, giving rise to a delightfully described underworld of drugs and crime...
The writing is genius-class from start to finish...
An extract from Junky:
In 1937, weed was placed under the Harrison Narcotics Act. Narcotics authorities claim it is a habit-forming drug, that its use is injurious to mind and body, and that it causes the people who use it to commit crimes. Here are the facts:Weed is positively not habit-forming. You can smoke weed for years and you will experience no discomfort if your supply is suddenly cut off. I have seen tea heads in jail and none of them showed withdrawal symptoms. I have smoked weed myself off and on for fifteen years, and never missed it when I ran out. There is less habit to weed than there is to tobacco. Weed does not harm the general health. In fact. most users claim it gives you an appetite and acts as a tonic to the system. I do not know of any other agent that gives as definite a boost to the appetite. I can smoke a stick of tea and enjoy a glass of California sherry and a hash house meal.
I once kicked a junk habit with weed. The second day off junk I sat down and ate a full meal. Ordinarily, I can't eat for eight days after kicking a habit.
Weed does not inspire anyone to commit crimes. I have never sen anyone get nasty under the influence of weed. Tea heads are a sociable lot. Too sociable for my liking. I cannot understand why the people who claim weed causes crime do not follow through and demand the outlawing of alcohol. Every day, crimes are committed by drunks who would not have committed the crime sober.
There has been a lot said about the aphrodisiac effect of weed. For some reason, scientists dislike to admit there is such a thing as an aphrodisiac, so most pharmacologists say there is "no evidence to support the popular idea that weed possess aphrodisiac properties." I can say definitely that weed is an aphrodisiac and that sex is more enjoyable under the influence of weed than without it. Anyone who has used good wed will verify this statement.
Yes William, I can verify that statement.
