Pages 50-62 Summary

Bill drives to Texas with a small supply of junk. He plans to take a reduction cure. He has a bottle of water with about a week's worth of heroin dissolved in it. Every time he draws a shot from the bottle he replaces the volume with distilled water, thus diluting the drugs gradually, shot-by-shot. Four days later he has used all of the drugs and is stranded, immobilized by sickness, in Cincinnati. Out of desperation he voluntarily incarcerates himself in Lexington, Kentucky, in a prison facility with a ward dedicated to curing addicts. Bill checks in, is showered and processed, and educated about the process. Bill then enters general circulation and makes the acquaintance of various quirky addicts all in various stages of recovery. They all discuss drugs, drug use, and various ways of earning money. The treatment consists of...