Long Strange Trip

My name is Andy G and I am an alcoholic. So is my best friend, let’s call him “John.” John and I have been friends since early high school, where we loved playing baseball. We are both now 43. As our school years progressed, so did our passion for the alcohol, drugs and the fast money that went with drugs. I was arrested on multiple drug felonies when I was 20 years old. Went to rehab that same year. Jails, institutions and death waited patiently. Years of abusive drinking passed slowly. John and I both watched each other in silence, deteriorating from the inside out. The involvement in “the life” became so serious that the long, fierce tentacles of the Federal government got involved. Paranoia, despair, constant loss prevailed. Friends and acquaintances started to die around us, get locked up on long prison sentences, the usual consequences of selfish, shortsighted decisions.