Ever noticed cigarette stains between the fingers of someone near you? I mean the heavy yellow stain like a tattoo that probably won't ever come off, even with a Tide stain remover pencil. I have always made it a point to look folks straight in the eyes if I have even the slightest element of a dooubt. That normally is the quickest most evident sign that someone is telling me a lie if they keep looking off in space. So here I am standing in the hall of the detox center being confronted by one sho'nuf addict just chewing the fat like an old golfing buddy. A decent conversation, eyeball to eyeball with me wondering what the hell he was up to?

   "Hi Doc,got any dust or high-rollers I can beat you out of?" with a low chuckle.

   "Nope,what did you get hooked on, I haven't seen you before?"

   "Aw Doc,I have been snorting and shooting coke for a lotta years.I had a five hundred dollar a day habit."

   "How in the world did you support that kind of habit?"

"Like right now, me and you talking ,if I knew where you lived I would be at your home stealing every thing you got I think I can go out and sell.Takes a lotta junk 'fore I can dig up five hundred bucks.Pawn shops don't give me much for the good stuff.Hell Doc,when I had a car I used to go out and steal the stuff and ride down the alleys behind the stores.I knocked on the back door and made quick sales like to drug stores and electronic shops. I served enough time 'cause the prisons are so packed we know we won't be there long 'fore they let us out."

   I had the willys 'cause that SOB kept staring at me and I caught myself trying to get away from his trance. He was hooked off and on for twenty years with cocaine.Think about it, 20x365 days x $500 equals the price of a huge mansion,a Rolls and the big time. I know he was telling me the truth 'cause all the nurses knew him.What is sad is he was a sharp business man with a wonderful family. He lost everything and began keeping the good life going for his pushers. He represents many successful men who went off on the deep end and probably has very little life expectancy left? For Addiction knows no classes nor boundaries.

Everett Beal Rph.