Junkie author William S. Burroughs on heroin addiction: CBC Archives | CBC 

I came home from Vietnam addicted to heroin....I was a functioning junky for 16 years. I put a lot of $$ into my arm back then. The VA gave me methadone for 4 years until I finally decided to got to the mountains and stay with a childhood friend who also an ex junky. He helped me kick the junk cold turkey. Proud to say I've been clean 40 years.

The happy days when one could be politely interviewed on a controversial topic and be allowed to speak candidly without being attacked or ridiculed.

Burroughs straight up laughing at the host when he said "Bit it's done damage to your SOUL" is giving me life lol

Could we please have TV shows like this again? Not everything has to be dumbed down to the level of The Jerry Springer Show.

They never do intelligent interviews on talk shows like this anymore. The questions and answers are consice, serious and thought out.

He has the most noticeable iconic voice ever .

What he said about junkies taking a bath is absolutely 100% true. Even now that I'm on methadone and no longer using heroin I'm still on an opiate so a lot of the old side effects are still there. It takes everything in me to shower because I can't stand the way it feels on my skin when I'm wet. I never understood why until this interview. I thought it was just depression but I know a lot of depressed people that shower and do makeup everyday. This man has given me so much insight into my self and we've never met. It's amazing being able to connect with someone on such a deep level like that.

6 weeks clean

I had no idea what real addiction was until this took over my life. Most people would never dream of doing heroin or any drug for that matter, and that's good. But there are people like me that couldn't die without finding out what it was like. It's great at first, then the greatness doesn't come anymore. You end up doing it so you don't get sick. And the sickness I'm talking about is no regular sickness. Words can't describe the pain. You will do anything to avoid the sickness. Those were the darkest times of my life.

I had an eating disorder for ten years and tore through therapists without taking any of their help on board. My fourth therapist was a drug and alcohol addiction counsellor in a men’s prison before The Priory where I saw him. He taught me that an eating disorder is an addiction and the road to recovery is by following the recovery route for any addiction. I finally started to make progress. I am an addict. I am in recovery. I can always relapse. Tomorrow I could relapse. I hope tomorrow I will continue in my recovery. Sending peace and love to all those on this harshly travelled road

The reason these type of interviews no longer exist is because there is truth to them and if it’s one thing that the big corporations can’t stand is, it’s the truth.

Alan Arkins character in Little Miss Sunshine has it right. Pick up a habit when your in your 70s. Why not? You're near the end anyway so enjoy yourself.

In the diary he kept in the last year of his life "Last Words", WSB with takes brief aim at himself and admitted he was never really off. Even when he wasn't using heroin he was imbibing on codeine or paregoric...So, his statement in JUNKY, "Once an adddict always an addict" holds true. It has certainly held true for me and every fellow addict of my acquaintance.

Lots of people die because they're kept on their own. Dying of loneliness, because other people did not care. Drugs just play the side gig. We destroy more on a psychologic basis by denial of love. We only want to blame the drugs because it's an inconvenient truth.

Do you remember Burrows in Drugstore Cowboy? He was amazing. The drugs may not kill you but the lifestyle sure as hell can. Car wrecks, gun shots, stabbings, assaults etc etc etc. Bad stuff.

Although Naked Lunch is often the most discussed, Junkie is also a fantastic book and is quintessential to an understanding of the Beats.

Of course its all about William Burroughs, but its great how Peter Gzowski mostly lets him talk and asks the questions his audience wanted to ask themselves.

I was an addict for roughly 10 years - been clean now for 10 (although I did have 1 relapse some 5 years ago - I'll get more into that in a min). Opiates start out as the key to heaven but finish as an entry into hell, madness and despair. I was one of the unusual ones who took it and didn't nod off but became extremely productive and creative. In the beginning I was a better husband, father and employee. But then physical addiction happens and the chase begins. Dope sickness is the worst & I'm speaking as one who recently had Covid and it was a walk in the park compared to being Dope sick. So for me, it became that tired old game of not running after my high, but running away from being sick - which made me deceitful, unreliable and I wasted a lot and I mean A LOT of money. So I quit and accepted the punishment to come. The sickness is the absolute worst. I didn't sleep at all for 4 days and then for a full 7 days after that only averaged 1-2 hours of sleep a night, I ached everywhere, I couldn't control my bowels, couldn't eat and I lost 20 pounds in 2 weeks. Thoughts of suicide, which I had never had before were a common theme rolling around in my head. I developed restless leg syndrome and still deal with that from time to time today. Mentally, I wasn't sharp for roughly 6 months. I feel like it took nearly a year to get back to normal. And, believe it or not, after going through all that I had a relapse. My grandfather passed some 5 years ago I had a terrible headache from all the emotion and sadness - my aunt (not knowing my history) gave me 3 Oxy's...without hesitation, I chewed and swallowed them up. Thankfully, it made me nod off, feel sick and after 2 days of just being dog-tired I knew then that it would never be the same and I've never touched them again.

He was such a gentleman. I had the pleasure of meeting him several times.

I know the subject is about Burroughs but man, do I ever miss Peter Gzowski; one of the greatest broadcasters and interviewers of all-time. RIP

I am a Junkie. Not a using junkie but one probably until I die. I make money now, due to a reintegration back into society, much more than I have ever had before. I do not buy junk with this money; I pay my mortgage, pay the bills, take care of my son, etc. I still have disposable income after all responsibilities are satisfied. The addiction is so ingrained that I don't even know what to do with extra money. I'm not a materialistic person, I am a hedonist. So basically when I have extra money I will have a hundred dollar lunch (by myself), it doesn't even come close to the opiate high. It's a far away second. I love my son though so I keep on trucking because it is no longer about me. However, I will always think like a junkie and therefore will always be a junkie.

I agree with most of what he is saying. After over 25yrs off heroin, I had minor surgery & took pain pills with no problem. It's nice that we could have polite discussions like this. I miss those days.😢

It's refreshing to hear such a frank and honest interview about drug addiction like this rather than demonizing or glorifying drug use he just tells it as it is in his own experience. Drugs are neither evil nor good, they just are what they are they have consequences both good and bad and everybody has different experiences with them. It's like fire, use it properly it can heat your home cook your food, let it get out of control and it will burn your house down.

I was a addict for 11yrs., got off in 2010. It made me feel alive, "normal"; I could fit in to any social situation. I went to work, was a good employee, took care of my family,etc., during the work-week. On the week-ends, I would "splurge" so to speak, doing larger amounts than I required to put-up with the work-week. As time went on, I found that not everyone who uses can do as I did. The few people that I knew who used, were generally a mess and could not do ANYTHING other than dose themselves, and nod-off. The drug to me was a "tool", and I used it accordingly. The only reason I quit, was because of it's worst side-affect: Jail.

I wish tv was still this interesting and intelligent. I miss the 70s.

Burroughs looks like a Shop teacher on the verge of retirement.

Burroughs has good humor, a brilliant mind, a curiosity of life, and an understanding that all three can work together, perhaps with an aid of choice, perhaps not. Either way I've always gained an incredible need to experience life like Burroughs has when reading his words or listening to him in interview. To merely exist is an insult to nature and the lives we're given.

I spent the better part of a decade addicted to opiates and during that time I was more high functioning than I have ever been. I was organized, regimented, disciplined, out-going, and congenial. Eventually the addiction led to negative behavior (Mostly due to the inability to adequately procure drugs) but as long as I had a supply, the effects were more beneficial.

this is a wonderful interview-the cbc deserves thanks for posting it

This interviewer obviously has no clue whatsoever what happens outside of his little bubble. I love his reaction of when Burroughs says that his personal experiences cause little damage to this health.

My favorite childhood poem is, Take Me In Your Arms, Miss Heroin.

After being off and on heroin the better part of my life 90% of what Burroughs says is dead on. Although you hear many reasons people use dope, the big one for me and many people I've met had been that it makes them feel normal. The first time I used I thought "this is what regular people must always feel like". No anxiety wearing on me, the depression I always felt was gone. It's basically the only antidepressant/anti-anxiety medication that really works!

Once again, allowed the use, most junkies are fine, function well and just need to be given their drugs.

This is probably the best Old Bull has ever looked.

He played the junkie priest in Drugstore Cowboy, great movie!

Opiates also make you chronically constipated.

I swear I could set down & listen to Burrough's lecture for hour's & be completely enthralled. I love his voice ! He'd of been my idea of the perfect college professor as well as a great guy to come home & do Dope with & talk. Something along those lines...👣🐾

"but it has done things to your soul"... a great line, which non plussed the great william s burroughs.

Excellent interview, thanks for posting.

Beautiful interview.

William Boroughs is a great man. Can listen to that junkie sounding crackled voice all day. 20 years as a heroin (crack/beer) addict was enough for my body. 8 years clean. Believe in yourself.

Wow, so he always sounded like that. Thanks so much for de-archiving this, CBC. I question whether U.S. TV would have been brave enough to air an interview like that back then.

I spent 15 years on fentanyl for spinal cord tumors, and while I never bought it illegally or took it not as prescribed-it did things to me that 8 years after I stopped taking it I still feel.

Yet the interviewer has an ashtray on his desk. An addiction that killed how many people? 😂

I love the way he fights off the "liberal" trying to skewer him and throw him into the lower castes, such a genius.

Speaking from experience Heroin addiction is the bottom of any pit of despair to start with it is like a warm cosy blanket until that blanket turns into a noose and it gets tighter and tighter until you pass out and wake up 20 yr later wondering where your life went half spent in a haze and the other half in a nightmare

Despite living on the border and watching and listening to CBC Windsor for decades, I forgot Peter Gzowski. His name should be in the synopsis of this clip. His history with the CBC should not be forgotten.

"If you believe it, it's not a lie" -George Costanza

Junkie is a great read, interesting reading about someone being a junkie in the 40/50s before the whole hippie scene.

Thank RU-vid for trying to convince me to change my mind about committing to sobriety and AA/NA! ❤😍

great interview and video, thank you

the interviewer is Peter Gzowski, renowned Canadian public radio journalist.

He's totally right about not bathing, and sexual apatite...I was hooked on painkillers, and couldn't stand water, especially if I was dope-sick. I think the squashing sexual desires is the reason I liked opiates so much. That being said, I don't suggest anyone flirt with the dragon.

He's not a "Junkie" this wealthy man nice enough to share with us got the best.

That’s pretty cool. What a great interview

Burroughs looks like "Uhhh.... what soul??"

As long as you have financial security you can be a junkie all your life, the real question is why would you want to? This interviewer isn't really asking the right questions, it seems

Very pleasant interview, my thanks to Mr. Borroughs

2 hours clean.

He is correct when it comes to alcohol. I have been addicted to both, and it was physically impossible to get off because i, and I’m not exaggerating, would die without substition medicine, like high dosages of benzodiazepines. I drank half a gallon of Vodka daily for ten years, cocaine and xanax/benzos. Daily.

"talk for a moment about being on the bottom". i always took buyrroughs for a top hahahaha

Ironically, at the time of this interview, James Grauerholz - his assistant/manager - was having to find heroin around Toronto to sort Burroughs out so that he could do his reading gig at the Danfoth theater.

This is especially important today due to the opioid addiction in America. As Burroughs points out, it's primarily a pain-killer. It's how people get addicted--prescribed pain-killers feel so good. When I was prescribed such a pain-killer after surgery, I took some initially. It was like floating on a cloud in a dreamy half-sleep. When I came to, I threw the pills away and never got a another prescription. I can see how people get addicted to that feeling.

I’ve been clean of heroin since 1998 but I’m still an addict.

Happy 100th Birthday, Uncle Bill.

What a brilliant interview

he's correct in the sense that opiates ALONE don't usually cause so much of the mortality rate is based on peripheral effects of not being able to SUSTAIN the habit. The immediate dangers of opioids are respiratory depression and constipation, but people on the street are unable to stay well and have varying sources of varying potency and those variables are usually where the dangers manifest. I believe that with proper supervision and administered by the properly trained personnel, opiate "abuse" would yield next to no fatalities but we need to stop treating the sick people afflicted with it like criminals first and to do that we have to completely retrain ourselves as a society

Burroughs is not telling the truth. I am a heroin addict (on and off) and between 1999 and 2008 i was 100 % off (of all drugs ) . I was moody, had aggressive outbursts and depressive stupors that seemed to come out of nowhere all the time. Even after 9 years H was permanently in my head, and I was still mentally addicted. And there was no tendency that it was getting better at all. That`s why I don`t believe him... I DO have regrets. I wished I had never touched it, because the disadvantages outweigh the positive sides by far, the longer you take that crap!

i agree once you try it that feeling ia always there still have dreams about 20 yrs ago

Huzzah! My favorite writer, his style electrifies me. Makes me think

I used heroin for four years straight three times a day intravenously, that was 15 or 20 years ago. I’m 45 years old and I am the most healthy member of my family.

Junkie should be a required read for any person in recovery. I was an amphetamine addict and I experienced alot of the same symptoms.

I was addicted to heroin for 30 years from 15 to 45 then I quit by coming down then cold turkey, I almost went crazy.

I like his old school mid-Atlantic American accent. A lot of the Hollywood/entertainment types had it(or adopted it).

Grateful to be 8+ years clean from junk now, I got out just as that damn fent was getting into the primary street supplies.

If you really wanna see a trip, watch William Burroughs in the movie Drug Store Cowboy play an 80 year old Junkie, he does it so well. That's how I was introduced to him back in 1994. Really cool movie , staring Matt Dillon 👍

His own son died from addiction to drugs in the 80's, before Burrouughs himself died

His comments in the interview are certainly not consistent with his depiction of drug addiction in naked lunch which was unbelievably horrific

Along came Hepatitis,AIDS ,OxyContin,fentanyl 😢

the assertion that one man could judge the condition of another man's soul... so arrogant.

It is true that chronic long term use of opiates does not have known long term effects. As Keith Richards has said...'I didn't have a heroin problem, I had a police problem'. Most deaths from heroin users are overdoses and infections from needle sterility issues. You can also get stuff laced with who knows what...but it is that stuff and not the opiate that can cause health issues. Clearly the addiction and loss of some function in some people can be a big problem. Not eating and using alcohol too are side effects of some opiate use, but again it is not the opiate per se. Society needs to balance its concern with individual dysfunction against the legitimate needs of chronic pain patients. Ironically the little old lady with a vertebral fracture who needs opiates is often the one who fears it so much she will spend months in needless pain,

Could listen to that voice all day

Two years after this interview, in 1979, Burroughs started using the mentioned drug again. He spent the remainder of his life trying to break the addiction, but he was never able to. What a sad tale, and in retrospect, what dumb things he says here in '77.

But it places you on the cliff of greatness. Only few can walk that knife edge and repeat back to us what they see.

I love his voice...

That chuckle

Don't listen to what Burroughs says in this interview.........it's sheer denial, heroin addiction is hell on earth.

As a recovering alcoholic, with many friends and acquaintances in recovery including addicts, I find that trying to explain the disease to a "normal" person is an exercise in futility. That's not a judgment but simply an observation.

“The damage to health from addiction is minimal”-William Burroughs absolutely on point! especially if heroin was legally available and provided, made of the highest standards for quality & purity. All drugs, ALL DRUGS, should be legal to use, to make, to acquire precursors chemicals in the amounts you see fit. Take away this ridiculous idea that people wont use drugs if they’re illegal or scheduled....

RIP Uncle Bill you are a legend .

The damage to Burroughs’ health clearly was minimal; dude lived to be 83 years old.

I have been an opiate addict and chronic relapser for over a decade and while i believe some people simply cant handle certain drugs...other people are lacking natural endorphins and need a chemical substitute. Besides tha fact that drugs are illegal i haven't seen much harm to myself physically. It has improved my mental and emotional health...opiates have literally saved me from suicide and for that i am forever grateful. All my drug problems came from tha criminilization of its use. Im not ypur typical stereotype heroin addict. I dont steal i have great work ethic it motivates me ive worked 2 jobs 7 days a week for years...never stole pawned or sold myself for a fix. I look 10 years younget than my age and due to my knowledge of use and cleanliness i have no diseases and even after shootong heroin for years straight...never once did i overdose. Im tha best worker at my job im intelligent i feel empathy for people and nature i have my own place my own car i pay my own bills and im responsible enough not to bring any children into this world. So don't judge addicts all tha same...you probably know a few and couldnt fathom that they are junkies. When i sold drugs i woukd meet nurses teachers doctors lawyers police officers...addiction does not discriminate. Sure i get clean from time to time to lower my tolerance or to stay out of jail ( i e probation) but with my depression and hatred for tha stupidity of society it always comes back. Im in love with opium its my light at tha end of tha tunnel...tha only peace and comfort i get. Sober life just isnt for me its too dark and cold. Ive been thru withdrawal more times than i can count and surely will again...why? With such negative consequences and suffering and pain why would i go back. Cuz there is much more suffering and pain without them...a more subtle pain that just wears u down everyday little by little until my choices become...use or suicide. I pick use everytime cuz i have hope for better days. Maybe one day ill be free of it...clean and sober and happy. Until then its just a basic choice not of right or wrong. ..but life or death. So ptay for addicts in your life...and work to overturn drug laws because chances are an addict is already being punished enough. Throwing them in jail taking their freedom property money and dignity helps no addict and overall hurts society. I will say if you've never tried opiates...dont ever start. Nothing that good exists without an equal bad. Hope this helps give you anotherperspective on addiction. Much peace n love to all.

I was a junkie for four years. It was hell. Burroughs is right about one thing, kind of. Heroin, in its pure form, is safe compared to other drugs. But IT WILL TAKE YOUR SOUL! Luckily, I got mine back, and I'm still alive. William got good, pure "junk." We poor people die from the cut shit (I almost did). And, as Baretta would say, "You can take that to the bank." Sorry, Mr. Burroughs, anyone who condones what should have killed me is no longer a favorite of mine. You were just defending your addiction. I've been there. No offense. RIP, sir.

still love his work!!

William S burroughs was a brilliant man. That was one of the most fascinating books I've ever read 'Junkie" I was in fact a junkie when I read it, glad to no longer be a junkie either! Have no desire to do that again I'm too happy...

I love Burroug4hs the author! I cannot say whether I love his8 writing as a result of him being a junky or not but Burroughs, like Kerouak, Thompson, Ginsberg etc. Are some of the most observant and honest writers ever.

dude is blown out on junk right now

What an amazing human being!

Using was the greatest part of my life. I never learned more about myself, or was more protected, from the evil atrocities commited by capitalist racketeers. Thank you for posting.

Long term opiates have little physiologic consequence, provided you don't stop breathing. Much less than cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol, tobacco. Same for THC. The same can't be said for the psychological effects. The acetaminophen in a Vicodin is arguably more toxic than the opiate. The point: know your DOC(drug of choice) and be accountable for your ingestion.