Drug Addiction as an Adventure

[Robert Urbanek]

“Though I had always wanted to be an opium addict, I can’t claim that is the reason I went to China.” Thus begins “The Big Smoke,” Emily Hahn’s account of her 1930’s globetrotting in a 1969 issue of The New Yorker. And thus also begins Ariel Levy’s December 1, 2025 review looking back at that article.

You would think such a depraved boast would be best buried in the past. But Levy admires her. “Who is this lady? What else will this droll, naughty adventurer get up to?”

Hahn did become an opium addict, recovered with the help of friends, and resumed her travels. But hundreds of thousands who take a drug “adventure” wind up dead or living in a tent on a sidewalk. But hey, it’s all just a lark to the liberal editors and writers at The New Yorker.

 

[sparky]

“Who is this lady?

~S~

 

[Concerned American]

“Though I had always wanted to be an opium addict, I can’t claim that is the reason I went to China.” Thus begins “The Big Smoke,” Emily Hahn’s account of her 1930’s globetrotting in a 1969 issue of The New Yorker. And thus also begins Ariel Levy’s December 1, 2025 review looking back at that article.

You would think such a depraved boast would be best buried in the past. But Levy admires her. “Who is this lady? What else will this droll, naughty adventurer get up to?”

Hahn did become an opium addict, recovered with the help of friends, and resumed her travels. But hundreds of thousands who take a drug “adventure” wind up dead or living in a tent on a sidewalk. But hey, it’s all just a lark to the liberal editors and writers at The New Yorker.

I wonder if any numbers have been compiled for the number of addicts that came out of the Vietnam drug adventure.

 

[braalian]

“Though I had always wanted to be an opium addict, I can’t claim that is the reason I went to China.” Thus begins “The Big Smoke,” Emily Hahn’s account of her 1930’s globetrotting in a 1969 issue of The New Yorker. And thus also begins Ariel Levy’s December 1, 2025 review looking back at that article.

You would think such a depraved boast would be best buried in the past. But Levy admires her. “Who is this lady? What else will this droll, naughty adventurer get up to?”

Hahn did become an opium addict, recovered with the help of friends, and resumed her travels. But hundreds of thousands who take a drug “adventure” wind up dead or living in a tent on a sidewalk. But hey, it’s all just a lark to the liberal editors and writers at The New Yorker.

apparently dark humor is a completely new concept to you?

did you grow up in an isolated cabin in the woods?

Are you Nell, from the movie 'Nell"?

 

[DGS49]

Drug addiction is now, and always has been totally off my personal radar screen. When I hear politicians say things like, "We all have friends and relatives who have been impacted by the 'fentanyl crisis'," I think, "Not me." I don't know of anyone.

There is an article in the paper today about a methadone clinic that is being closed, devastating the lives of people who have been going there for decades. Seriously? What's wrong with this picture?