Border Junkies: Addiction and Survival on the Streets of Juárez and El Paso

The Inter-America Series

by Scott Comar, Howard Campbell

The drug war that has turned Juárez, Mexico, into a killing field that has claimed more than 7,000 lives since 2008 captures headlines almost daily. But few accounts go all the way down to the streets to investigate the lives of individual drug users. One of those users, Scott Comar, survived years of heroin addiction and failed attempts at detox and finally cleaned up in 2003. Now a graduate student at the University of Texas at El Paso in the history department's borderlands doctoral program, Comar has written Border Junkies , a searingly honest account of his spiraling descent into heroin addiction, surrender, change, and recovery on the U.S.-Mexico border. Border Junkies is the first book ever written about the lifestyle of active addiction on the streets of Juárez. Comar vividly describes living between the disparate Mexican and American cultures and among the fellow junkies, drug dealers, hookers, coyote smugglers, thieves, and killers who were his friends and neighbors in addiction—and the social workers, missionaries, shelter workers, and doctors who tried to help him escape. With the perspective of his anthropological training, he shows how homelessness, poverty, and addiction all fuel the use of narcotics and the rise in their consumption on the streets of Juárez and contribute to the societal decay of this Mexican urban landscape. Comar also offers significant insights into the U.S.-Mexico borderland's underground and peripheral economy and the ways in which the region's inhabitants adapt to the local economic terrain.

246 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2011

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

A spare and straightforward memoir of life as an addict. The narrative is simple and follows the authors everyday life supporting his addiction to heroin. Nothing exciting happens, there are no wacky characters, shocking crimes, or florid descriptions of drug use. Comar provides a quick and easy read by giving us a bare bones account of his descent in to heroin addiction and how he survived on the streets. The decided lack of drama is what made Border Junkies an worthwhile read. Comar is a run of the mill drug addict. He's not violent or crazed. Most of the book is spent describing his daily hustle, a routine made possible by his unique position on the Mexican-American border, and his attempts to get clean. The account is barebones, focused on his behavioral patterns and the daily grind of fending off dope sickness. Nothing mind blowing or earth shattering, but still a valuable contribution.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Please for the love of god, do not waste your time reading this book. I was looking for an educational and experiential insight on the drug epidemic on the border and instead found a poorly written book with numerous typos and frustratingly boring scenarios over and over.