Stories of the Drug Ward

Twice a month the addicts lined up to get their methadone. First they had to go down the yellow line to take a urine test. Their urine had to test clean for them to qualify for more methadone, so there were folks in the parking lot who made a peaceful living selling their piss. I am sure that this rendered the colored lines almost useless, but because the urine entrepreneurs were not friendly to me I did not ask them their views. -- Another good trick of the yellow-liners who got what they had waited there for was to swish the methadone around in their dour knowing mouths and pretend to swallow it, and then go spit it out and sell it on the street. Even if they had to buy piss to sell methadone, they still came out ahead. So a staff person had to make them talk after they swallowed. When they talked she looked into their mouths to make sure that the liquid had gone down their unwilling throats.