Down to the Bone

#downbone

Grocery store cashier Irene snorts lines of cocaine with a soda straw. (0:03)

Irene rubs cocaine on her gums. (0:04)

Irene's husband Steve offers her joint. She finds cocaine and rubs some on her gums. (0:06)

Irene tries to buy drugs on credit, but the dealer turns her down. Later she tries to get residual cocaine out of a used soda straw by cutting it open. (0:10)

Irene's dealer turns her down again. (0:13)

A counselor evaluating Irene for admission to a residential treatment program refers to her "drug of choice."
"Coke."
He asks about her children: "They're aware of your drug use?"
Irene: "No"
Counselor: "It's a little hard for me to piece together that you use coke, and there's no employment problem..."
"That's a lot of drug use for a lot of years." (0:15)

Patients in the treatment center day room. (0:16)

Written on a blackboard: "CRAVING"
Counselor: "So we've all read the handout on cravings and how to deal with them... anybody here have a craving today?"
Hands go up.
"If that'll get you through a crave..."
Patient Hector: "I'm more comfortable when I'm high."
"What we're gonna talk about these craves... more comfortable than being high." (0:17)

Patient Hector asks the counselor: "This supposed to help me from stop doing drugs?" (0:22)

Counselor: "How many people here have been using alcohol and/or drugs for at least 10 years?"
"So your kids came to you and said, 'Mommy, why don't you go to rehab?'" (0:23)

An accupuncturist works on Hector and Irene. (0:24)

Nurse Bob, "I've seen a lot of people... using for years."
Irene refers to the book Bob gives her as "another twelve step book. Just what I wanted."
In her room Bob appears to break the rules by smoking himself and offering Irene a cigarette. Has Bob violated boundaries? (0:26)

Irene tells Steve in a telephone conversation, "One of the counselors here... I can't imagine being home and not using."
A nurse passes out medications. (0:28)

Narcotics Anonymous meeting: "Welcome. NA offers addicts a way to live drug free... Most of us felt like that when we first came to NA..."
"Somehow we knew that we couldn't go on using drugs, but we didn't know how to stop or stay clean."
Another member: "And the reason Al read that today is because it's his one anniversary." (0:32)

Outside the meeting a member talks about what he has given up: "Everything, no methadone." (0:33)

Her dealer sells Irene's guest April "four forty's."
Another guest crushes a white pill between bills with a lighter then divides the powder on a mirror with a card. He then rolls the bill, presumably preparing to insufflate the powder. (0:38)

Irene tells the store manager, "I used to be good and fast because I was high most of the time, but now I'm clean..."
Store manager: "Irene, you know our policy on drugs." (0:43)

Bob tells Irene, "You've only got a couple of weeks sober." (0:46)

Irene tells Lucy, referring to the bottle of Windex she uses, "This stuff smells like coke." (0:49)

Bob holds a syringe then injects his arm with an unidentified drug.
Irene: "Were you ever clean?"
Bob: "I hadn't done a bag in 5 years." (0:56)

Irene gets ready to use a drug.
Bob: "We'll get you some coke..."
Irene insufflates an unidentified drug. (0:58)

Lucy: "Irene, you're 13 stepping... when you... get that hole inside, and you just need to fill it.
Steve smokes a joint then shares it with Irene.
Irene: "I can't do this sober."
Steve: "I've got a little coke, but I mean you're not doing coke anymore, right?"
Steve opens a package. They both snort. (1:03)

Bob injects Irene's arm. He says, "Make a fist." (1:08)

A traffic cop asks Irene and Bob, "Is that a cooker?" (1:10)

Attorney Jerry tells Irene, "Police allege that you had half an ounce of heroin... have this matter transferred to drug court... counseling sessions... group... NA." (1:11)

Steve tells Irene, "It's your rehab friend." (1:13)

Irene tells Lucy, "I slipped."
Lucy, referring to Bob: "He made you slip." (1:16)

Irene gives observed urine sample to a nurse.
Counselor Karen tells the groupx it's "dirty urine day..."
Tillie: "I picked up some crack."
"I am concerned now that I told you that I used." (1:17)

The sign reads "DRUG FREE OUTPATIENT SERVICES." Irene provides a sample for a urine drug screen. (1:25)

A dealer measures pills out to Bob: "When'd you go off the wagon?" Bob swallows one.
Dealer: "You're stickin' sticks in your mouth..."
Bob: "I gotta decrease that methadone down to zip, and then I'm back to meetings."
Dealer: "You're talkin' about using... being addicted to something."
Bob folds foil around some orange pills. (1:27)

Lucy asks Irene, "What about the meetings? Has he been going to meetings?" (1:29)

Bob tells Irene, "I think it's the methadone. I lost my tolerance."
Irene: "You think the dose is too high?" (1:31)

Irene: "Bob, are you clean?"
Bob: "I'm on methadone, Irene."
"I'm taking some anti-anxiety drugs... makes the meth work better."
Irene: "So you can feel more high. So that the methadone is more like dope."
"I can understand... wanting to get high."
"I need you to be clean..." (1:33)

addiction | boundaries | cocaine | counselor | craving | drug testing | joint | meetings | methadone | Narcotics Anonymous | on the wagon | rehabilitation | slip | twelve steps

Vera Farmiga, Hugh Dillon, Clint Jordan 2004