Al is Sicilian. We met at the HEPPAC needle exchange in Oakland.

I used to work for CALPEP- they do the same thing they do here. CALPEP is a educational project for prostitutes. I used to come here and help with the needle exchange.

I worked with them from ‘98-2000. I got involved because of my drug use. CALPEP hired me right away after I put in my application. They were training me to be a Hepatitis specialist. I would go out in the street with needle kits, paraphernalia, prophylactics. Same stuff here, but CALPEP hit the streets more, they have like 27 different spots in Oakland.

Q: How many years had you been using before working for CALPEP?

I’m 48. I think I started [using drugs] when I was 11. My uncles came home from Vietnam and I seen what they’re snorting. In Oakland then, in ’68, ’69, marijuana was the thing back then. But my mother let two of my uncles stay in the garage, live there, when they came back from Vietnam. I used to spy on them at night, see what they were snorting. Every night, I’d hear that snnnnnf, snnnnnnf. Every night, my and another brother, there’s 14 of us- we’re Sicilian- we grew up right here in this neighborhood with the blacks and the Mexican’s. And uh, my nosiness got me involved. When they came back from Vietnam- whoa- you remember the original cigar boxes? They brought them home full of it… So when they would go off to work and stuff, I would sneak in there and snort…

Q: So it wasn’t hard for them to bring drugs in the country?

It was pretty easy back then. As a matter of fact, I don’t even remember hearing about methadone or anything back then. There was a while, when Jimi Hendrix was still alive back then…

Q: So was heroin the first drug you ever used?

Yeah. Yeah. I had smoked a little marijuana, but I didn’t care for it.

Q: Do you still snort now or inject?

No, I inject now.

Q: When did you start injecting?

That didn’t happen until, like, it was eight years. So maybe in the mid-70’s. Mid-late 70’s.

Q: What prompted you to start injecting?

I seen them doing that and my drug buddies and I would see how fast that thing went, how fast the heroin came on, how they would get into a mood where they would… you know, turn the oldies on, and everybody would get happy all of a sudden, and I would say, “Wow!....” I probably messed up for a week straight, stabbing myself. I didn’t know what I was doing. The first time I got it right- that was the biggest mistake of my life.

Q: That was in the 70’s, talk to me about how you got syringes over the last two decades.

Syringes, believe it or not, we used to have to make them with our mothers’ eye droppers and they had the plastic grape decorations in the house- you know fake grapes?- well we would plow one of those on the tip of the eye dropper and that was the suction. That’s how we started that. The needles were from the hospital. We would put them on the end. As far as I can remember from back then, the needles used to pop right off- you could pop them off and on. We would use needles for a whole week before we would throw them away. It was wild man, it was crazy.

Q: How did that change? What did you do from there? Were you able to get syringes on the street eventually?

Oh yeah. They had them, my uncles had ‘em. I would steal them.

Q: So when did your parents realize you were using drugs?

They were alcoholics. They didn’t find out for years. My mom and dad and my older- I’m 48 and there’s 14 of us and I think I am almost in the middle. So all of the ones above me were born in Trenton, New Jersey. My parents are from that side of the country. So, you know, alcoholics in our family, our Sicilian family- we are maybe one fourth Puerto Rican- we got alcoholics. They didn’t pay attention to my hard use.

Q: How many of your brothers and sisters would you say have had problems managing their drug use?

All of the boys above me. About five of them- just the older ones.

Q: Why not the younger ones?

Kicking their butts into making them not do it. The older ones did that to ‘em. It wasn’t easy... Well, I take that back- there was one underneath who got involved with heroin. That was Tommy.

Q: Are any of your other siblings still using on a regular basis today?

Yes. Yes. I think the one that was under me, he’s probably the only one that stopped. Yeah, he’s behaving well. Anybody else?.. There might be one of the older boys that’s behaving. But I don’t see too much of them.

Q: So you say “behaving,” how do you view drug use? Is this something where people are being bad?

Ehh, I don’t even know why I said that. I think that ah, the needle exchange and methadone played a role, a big role, in the younger one, you know, getting on the right track in life.

Q: So how do you think of your use?

Now, especially in the last 90 days, I’ve really been trying to get on some methadone, but the program that I was involved in all had to do with Project 36 [Prop 36] and I just got off parole after 18 years on parole. I have to start all over because all of the programs I was involved with were for people on parole. It’s hard man. I’ve been trying, but they say, “Oh, you’re off parole now, you can’t use this program anymore.” It’s really depressing because I have really been trying these last 90 days.

I got off parole and I was on the street- I’m homeless now. I’ve been homeless for about eight months. My wife just got tired of me. I’ve been with her 26 years. We have three daughters in their mid-20’s. But you know, she was getting tired of the drug use and all that. There was nobody in my wife’s family doing drugs. She don’t do nothing, smoke cigarettes or anything. She’s never been to jail or anything. As far as her behavior, her only involvement with this stuff is me, that’s it.

[We stop briefly for Al to see the on-site doctor]

Q: So you had an abscess?

Yeah. My cooker was behind that. My cooker was, ah, dirty. There was some residue from methamphetamine in it, and it irritated my skin real bad. That is one of the downfalls. You have to be clean. Oh man, the needle exchange is a lifesaver. But you got to be careful. Abscesses are mostly our fault. It was my fault. It could have been avoided if I wouldn’t a been in a hurry. I let somebody use my cooker and they had methamphetamine in it and they didn’t clean it as well as they should have.

Q: So you got off parole 90 days ago? And were you in a program at that point?

I was in, you know, an NA program, AA stuff. One program I should have stayed involved with was with my ex-job, CALPEP, you go every Wednesday and you just stay informed. It’s a men’s meeting. It’s a free meeting. There’s about 20 of us. We have lunch on Wednesdays. They show a movie, feed you, keep you informed about what’s going on in the streets, the newest programs. I didn’t stay involved. If I would have stayed involved, they would have known I was getting off parole and they might have helped me stretch my methadone.

Q: Were you using at the end of your parole?

I was still using. To get on Prop 36 I had to do it while I was still on parole.

Q: So at this point, how can you get into a program?

That I don’t know. I’ve been on parole so long. As a matter of fact, that’s what I’m in the process of doing- checking programs out that are for people who aren’t on parole or probation. They people here, as we speak, they’re trying something for me.

Q: What charge did you catch back in the 80’s?

Well, the first time I started going to prison was in the late 70’s. It was a murder-robbery. Manslaughter-robbery… Ahhh. Stupid stuff. Being young, on heroin, trying to get some quick money, we accidentally killed somebody in the process. We were trying to hold the gun on the hostages while we were trying to grab the money with both hands out of the cash register and one of the younger guys flipped out, one of the guys we were robbing, he started going, “Oh! They’re going to kill us! I just know it…” I was trying to keep him quiet because he was scaring the women we were holding hostage. He went crazy and my gun accidentally discharged. It was our fault to the end. It was an accident, but it was definitely our fault. We did a little bit less than eight years… Ahhh, shit…. It was a mistake…

Q: Was that the only time you have been in prison?

No, I’ve been in a couple of times after that. But for much shorter periods. One time was for a dirty urinalysis- I did eight months I think, two-thirds of eight months- and one was for petty theft, stealing out of stores.

Q: Were you ever referred to treatment throughout any of this?

I could have been, but no. I was in a hurry to get back on the street and shoot heroin. If I would have been involved in what you just said, I probably would have been alright.

Q: How did your prison experience affect your use?

There was dope in there, too. It was an ongoing thing.

Q: So you used in prison?

Yeah. Yeah. It was there. It was about three times more than street value, but yeah, definitely.

Q: Did you see changes in terms of who was coming in to prison while you were in and out?

The first time in the 70’s you saw Mexican Americans, blacks and whites, not too many Filipinos, Asians, Russians. But I went two years ago for about 90 days in the county jail. Man, everybody is there! They are younger, real young, they got 17 year olds in adult jail. They got Asians, gangs going on. It is out of control. And there is nothing going on. If it was more like the 70’s with programs and training and stuff, but there is nothing, no programs. You have to go to prison to get involved with anything because in jail there is nothing. You can take beginner English, but nothing you really need. Nobody’s taking them. They need to have NA classes there or something, job training classes.

Q: What is your work history like?

Painter. Painter. My father and one brother retired from TWA in San Francisco. I probably worked there three times off and on. I worked for World Airways for a while before they went to the East Coast in the early 90’s. That folded and I lost a job there.

Right now I am working on getting back on methadone. One methadone program I was involved with was the 14 th Avenue Clinic. They have, shoot, maybe 11 different classes you can take while on methadone- even acupuncture and re-entry stuff for coming back out. That class sends you to other classes on the street for job-training and stuff. That’s where I’m at now.

Q: When was the last time you talked to your wife?

I call them a lot, about three times a week. I go over once a week to shower. She wants me in a program. She wants me in a program that is at least a year or more. The one she is looking at now is CURA out of Freemont, California. That is in-patient for 12 months or more.

Q: Have you been in an in-patient before?

No. No, not yet.

Q: How have your views changed about drug use, your take on things, coming from the participant to being on the professional side for a while?

I would say as far as a participant, me, in my personal opinion- years ago it was okay. But now, today, it’s just wild, crazy. These younger ages… One kid I was in a cell a while back, he was like 19 years and he was pimping his own sisters because there was no food in the house. I know there was some sort of marijuana use, but I don’t think he was on heavy drugs or anything like that.

Q: So what should be done to better address what’s going on?

Our councilman or congressman in this neighborhood is De La Fuente, he needs to get involved. I never seem him out here. The Police don’t get involved, they just come and arrest us. “You pieces of shit. You heroin addicts, you ain’t got nothing in life…” Which is true, I’m not denying that, but it would be… nice if they put some of that energy into getting involved in the community. I mean, Oakland is like number three in not solving the murders. Not to make us, heroin addicts glorified or nothing, but none of the people you see here are involved in crime no more. There’s no stealing- I recycle. All of us here- you see all the shopping carts- a lot of us here do that. Probably the only illegal thing I do is trespass to get cans out of people’s trash.