Damn Adrenaline

Oh no it's that damn adrenaline
Oh no it's that damn adrenaline
back in the early 80's there were a group of dopefiends that hung out in DC's Dupont Circle, shooting dope in the bushes while government workers walked to theor jobs at the embassies on Mass ave or the various Federal goernment extensions. Dupont Circle is a beautiful stately circle park with a classic round multitired fountain in the middle. You had to be pretty freaking hot to swim in that water but if you were loaded enough on a super muggy DC day you might go for it. The guys who shot dope in the park ranged from white boys sneaking in from the burbs to hardcore lifelong heroin addicts who could'nt hang down at 14th and T or (th and O because of some transgression or lack of hussle due tpo age. It was easier for them to fix a 10 or 20 dollar bag in the morning come to the park and drink all day to stay loaded than to manage a hundred dollar a day habit. Copping dope for white people in DC was especially hard for white people, you were either attracting cops cause you stuck out so bad or getting nothing but powdered aspirin. If you got to know one of the veteran dope fiends you might get an arrangement going to go halves on a speedball or a dilaudid. "Going halves" meant you gave up half the dope to the the "flyer" (aka you buy I fly). 75% of the time the flyer never came back or came back loaded and nodding just to laugh in your face. This situation left those on the fringes of this arrangement to engage in experimentation.
The particular incident to which I am referring was told to me by Red Haired John, a transplanted North Carolinian who had been running around DC's worst streets since he returned from the Army to live with his grandmother. John told me that one of the regulars down at Dupont Circle was another white boy named Doug the Wino, who dressed like Dave Vanian from the Damned, probably before anybody knew who that was. (Doug later jumped out of a window while high on PCP over on Belmont Street, but thats another story)
Doug the Wino was really more of a junkie than a drunk but that varied with the seasons. Doug and John were some of the few white guys who had the cojones to walk down to 9th and O sts and cop dope for people. They were in demand because they tended to return with some dope and if they wre high enogh on heroin would make a run just for 10 bucks or a vial of "shake caine" aka powdered coke specially formulated for injecting. One of the people they ran for was guy they called "Ali Hajii"
"Ali Hajii" was of course not his real name but back then no one at the park had ever tried to pronounce a middle eastern name and this was as close as they could get to his real name. He was an Iraninan who'd come over after the fall of the Shah with a prodigous opium habit in tow. Black sheep of a rich family he stumbled into Dupont Circle one day recognized the signs and symptoms of his fellow sufferers and would come down and ask John or Doug to make a run for him.
One day Doug who was bit more scandalous than Red Haired John came to the park with something he'd gotten from a chick from Bethesda who's dad was a vternarian. Injectable Beef Adrenaline, or at least they thought it was injectable. Doug really had no idea so when Ali Hajii showed up at the park dope sick and looking for a speedball he offered him something "better" Poor Ali Hajii paid Doug then Stuck his arm into the bushes where John used the leaves to conceal him "hitting Ali in the arm. Red Haired John later said he felt bad about participating in this subterfuge but was just as curious as Doug as to what would happen.
John pushed in the plunger and hid the works in a bag benaeth a pilke of leaves. When he stood up to ask Ali how he was doing all he saw was the back og Ali's black silk shirt as he ran full speed down Pstreet towards George Town, literally bouncing into the air every few steps. Doug and John felt this was a good sign and preceded to give themselves injections of the beef adrenaline too.To be continued this is raw un spell checked