i was all were you dudes raging over there?

he was like, no, im sober, in fact you’re taking me to my halfway house.

i said, wow, good for you. what was your poison?

heroin.

damn bro!

yeah i know.

were you guys watching the world series?

no. fuck Houston!

let me guess, you’re a Yankee fan?

Boogie Down Bronx, ride or die.

dude appeared to be from India but he had a thick East Coast bias.

do people rehabbing from heroin often come to Los Angeles?

long story, but sometimes it’s smart to go somewhere that’s less easy to score.

bro i could drive you somewhere right now…

oh i know, but it’s not like being in NY and one of my friends coming by with an 8-ball.

you guys snort H out there?

in a heartbeat. we get our shit from Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras. it’s the genuine article. LA has the worst heroin, it’s from Mexico. That stuff will kill you.

well im very proud of you. i can only imagine how hard it was to kick.

it was a nightmare.

on Howard Stern, Artie would talk about using some medicine that helped him.

yeah Subutex. But that was awhile ago. that shit was just as addictive as heroin. it was legal heroin. and getting off that shit was harder than kicking the real thing.

say whaaaat?

yeah so theres new stuff now that will make you really sick if you mix it with heroin. 

we drove through Beverly Hills past Century City. i changed the subject back to the Yankees and filled him in on the game, which was now tied in the 10th.

i asked him if he had ever read the Basketball Diaries.

he said, no but he watched some of the movie but nodded off.

i was all, maybe you’re better off.

dropped him off in front of a $3 million home, which he swore was his halfway house.

i said, that looks like a Completely Full House and he laughed.

then coughed.

then laughed again.