David Graham Scott and his wife Denise were 23 when they became addicted to heroin. He embraced heroin like a new faith. It might sound weird, but being an addict gave him a sense of identity. He made experimental films about his needle fixation, an obsession with death that fueled his drug addiction.
In 1988, after separating from Denise, he moved to Glasgow, where he believed he could recover from heroin, but it wasn’t easy. He sought medical help for his drug habit. Doctors prescribed him methadone on a regular basis. The synthetic drug has been a government-approved substitute for heroin since the 1960s. He replaced an illicit addiction with a legal addiction.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, he worked as a projectionist and, in his spare time, began making his own films about other heroin addicts in an attempt to understand his own addiction. He stabilized on methadone, but his friends remained addicted. He met Dennis in 1990. He was a junkie in London in the 1960s. His son Chris was also addicted to heroin. David spent most of his time in their cot.
One night, the old Pall DL showed up. Just out of prison, he has been sober for four months. He was eager for a blow. Having injected heroin himself, David knew exactly what that craving was, the need for escapism. Because his tolerance was low, DL was injected with a mixture of heroin and temazepam.
Drug addicts will do anything to make money. DL is a strange character, but he had a huge impact on others. Soon, he’s taking her while shoplifting. Oddly enough, heroin brought father and son closer together. Chris often helped his father shoot him in the neck because the veins in his arms had failed.
