After being purchased by EMG in April, Creative Loafing Tampa became part of a portfolio of alt-weeklies across the country. One of those papers is the San Antonio Current where staff writer Chris Conde has been covering The Alamo City’s music scene since early 2016.
On Monday, Conde, who moved to Texas from the Baltimore/Annapolis area a decade ago, shared a personal reflection built around the tragic death of Pittsburgh rapper and producer, Mac Miller, who died of an overdose two weeks ago. Conde couldn’t tell you the names of any songs by Miller, but Mac’s death still hit home.
The first and only time Conde ever did heroin was in 2012. Conde was bartending at a spot just a block from a dealer. Just 26 at the time, Conde had recently relapsed from a four-month sobriety stint that included three months at Haven For Hope, a homeless shelter that also provided a 90-day treatment program. A false positive on a drug test put Conde back on the street for a few hours before a friend offered their couch.
“Long story short, I ended up overdosing on heroin and surviving,” Conde wrote. “However, the experience wouldn't stop me from plumbing the depths of cocaine and meth addiction for the next couple years.”
Conde’s detailed and moving piece details the ongoing recovery, but it also taps San Antonio musicians like Hickoids frontman Jeff Smith and Girl In A Coma’s Nina Diaz to tell their own recovery stories. In the past, CL has heard murmurs of drug use running through our own local scene, so we thought to share Conde’s piece with our community hoping to start a conversation about heroin and other drugs which threaten to complicate and potentially ruin the lives of the creatives who make the Bay area great place to live.
“I actually just know these artists from being involved in the San Antonio music scene myself,” Conde told CL. “Both Jeff and Nina have been open about their recovery to the publication I write for, so I figured they'd be willing to share their experience again. I wouldn't say it was difficult to incorporate their stories with my own because I believe most addicts and alcoholics have relatively similar experiences getting sober.”
Talking to others helps Conde stay in recovery.
“The disease of alcoholism wants to convince me that I don't have it; staying in recovery and hearing other people's stories reminds me that I do,” Conde said. “It's sort of crazy and beautiful that the people I was searching for to understand my pain would end up being other sober alcoholics and addicts.”
Read Conde’s piece via San Antonio Current.