There’s an argument that any references to heroin use in culture inevitably glamourises it. I recall there being a lot of debate about this around the time that Trainspotting was released in the cinemas.
My own view, and this might be coloured by my anti-censorship inclinations, is that while there may have been a bit of glamourisation, the film did also show the harrowing nature of heroin addiction. Overdoses, withdrawal symptoms, HIV transmission – they were all dealt with in gruesome detail. After watching Trainspotting, only a jaw-dropping imbecile would conclude that getting hooked on smack was in any way desirable.
Now let’s take a look at Vice – the magazine for jaw-dropping imbeciles.
We all know that pumping heroin into your veins turns you into a phenomenal artist. Basquiat? Cobain? Burroughs? Have you seen the shit they were putting out before they started using? Of course you have, because it was put on your high school syllabus to teach you that you’ll never be able to create real art without a smack habit. But one group of artists your school books might not have mentioned are the dealers who use their own graphics to beautify their heroin baggies. Kind of like acid tab art, I guess, only more sinister and likely to kill you.
Yes, this is indeed an article on “The Art of Heroin Bags”. No, I’m not kidding, I just wish I was.
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