A short interview with someone who lost his love due to their unwillingness to let go of a drug.
Audio Interview 1
1.
“I just want to leave for a little while, that’s all. Is there anything wrong with leaving?”
Joe had said this to me in the early morning of December 23, 2015 a few minutes after snorting a pill and half of the drug Xanax. A few friends and I had gotten together at a local trail in the town of Wilton, CT. Everyone that we knew and come to care about over the 13 plus years we had known each other, all finally came home from winter break from the schools we had chosen to intend. The distances are longer than others, but we are all here and that is the most important thing to all of us. We came to share our stories of life in college; the girls we had met, the parties, the work, and the feeling of being released from a household to be then subjected into ones own free will.
It was exciting for all of us, to hear each one of our unique and distinct voices describing these experiences of revelry and debauchery. We all had laughed and questioned each other to hopefully bring us closer to the event, almost as if we were there with them. It was cold, crisp, and the hyperborean wind had only subsided momentarily after we were individually taking our hits off of the spliff.
Everyone seemed to be here, as in mentally, physically and emotionally. But not Joe, we all knew he had left to go somewhere. Are goal being to walk to a specific point in the trail where the foundation of a brick house once stood erect, only having the parameter, the fireplace and the chimney as reminders that there once was a home. Its location was atop a hill, which was ideal for a view of the early morning sunrise. On our way, Joe had seemed to become less and less “there” if you know what I mean. Constantly putting him back on course, to remind him where he was and where we were going. We had eventually made it to our destination to witness the sunrise. The view, even though commonly expected, was nothing short of simple and what was needed between friends.
Our eyes, dominated by the colors of the rising sun had shifted quickly to our friend. Whose body was laying on the grass as if it were one of the stones that stood beside him. According to the Memorial Hermann Prevention and Recovery Center, Xanax “is the most commonly prescribed psychiatric medication.” And between the years of 2005 and 2011, the number of emergency room visits related to Xanax had increase from 57,000 to 124,000. We all thought Joe was going to be another statistic. His speech was slurred, his body was delicate and weak. We were all scared, we didn’t know what to do, we didn’t want anyone to find out.
We went back home, hoping he will wake up with all of us, “I’m back bro’s… so what happened while I was away?”
Planet Caravan 