My Name Is Martin...

And one day i became a narcotics user...

I recently told this story in the Argentina Hardcore board, http://www.argentinahardcore.org/, and its only fitting that I tell it here also...

In 1997 i was locked up in the Lorton Complex, now closed but at one time of the U.S. worst jails, for having been caught doing graffiti 3 years earlier, getting a suspended sentence and probation which I apparently failed when I would make fun of my weekly drugs tests and the probation officer said I wasn't taking it seriously which resulted in a 6 months halfway house sentece of which I served 3 weeks and got jumped by some youngins and I never went back to once they let me out to eat, which led to a 2 year fugitive run and post arrest for the time owed, ok, back to the story, I was in Lorton for 6 months and I i had a release date for a tuesday but talking to the "locals" I found out that if you went to 10 Narcotics Anonymous meetings you would get 3 days off good time; hell, it meant a friday release, so off to the meetings I went...

First meeting I had to introduce myself in the all too familiar "my name is...", shit, what do I say? do I tell the truth and risk being "asked to leave" for disrespecting their meetings with even themselves as recovering addicts or do I play along and just say I have a problem... I came clean, explained that I was Straight Edge and had never done drugs in my life, hadn't had a drink in years, and I didn't even smoke cigarettes, although always had some on me to "buy" people's lunches at the mess hall, you could get somebody's whole tray for 3 cigarettes but that's a different story. I'm not sure if they truely understood, I think they thought of SxE more of a NA type of thing, and I kept going to meetings, all good so far until...

In one of my collect calls home, somebody tells me "yoo, watch Fox(or whatever it was) tonight, they are doing a special on SxE." cool i thought, let me figure out a way to get the TV, which is easier said than done, I kinda spoked to the head "dude" in charge and got his approval, normally all that would be on would be sporting events, as longs as it was a sport it was OK, this wasn't and a few complained but they let it ride. About halfway thru the show, they interview some Salt Lake City SxE kids who anybody who is familiar with them knows they are not the most sane people on earth and one of them said "Straight Edge means you have to kill drug dealers"... knot on the throat, automatically I had 30 sets of eyes looking at me "yooooo you wanna kill drug dealers?", you all can obviously guess the profession of most everybody there, I said "me? nah, thats the white boys chapter, latino SxErs don't do that", haha, it was the first thing that came to mind and it was one of the closest times I came to a serious beatdown...

Couple mental notes, it's funny how the progression of events lead to different outcomes, if I hadn't wanted to get out 3 days early I wouldn't have told them about SxE and maybe my health wouldn't have been threatened, and I wouldn't have laughed at my PO because he didn't believe I didn't do drugs and made me pee once a week then I would have so many later events would have been different, and who knows maybe, just maybe I would still be in the US, oh well, I wouldn't change a thing...

Heres the show that was my welcome home "party" on that sunday, coincidently the Safari Club/Chamber Of Sound had a fire that friday night I got out and the show was moved next door to a travesty hooker nudie bar... 

Hardcore Record Collector Tidbit: at this show Rain On The Parade sold their limited 44 DC cover, 44 is my favorite number and they did it to welcome me home...