Yes I heard many similar excuses when I was in to pills, but consider yourself lucky. Once I got into Heroin and didn't know where to get it my bright idea was to google H bust West Side of Chicago and then decided to drive down there and do some looking. I went through quite a few bad experiences before I finally found a guy I could trust. This included being sold baggies of dirt, baking soda, and getting a knife pulled on me and robbed. I know several others who were pulled out of their car and got the crap beat out of them.
Then there was the wave of people dying due to the dope being laced with Fentanyl. At least with pills you have an imprint and know what the hell you are getting. Dope is like Russian Roulette many times. Add into that the several times getting pulled over and luckily wasn't holding yet so was able to get out of it (although they are known to impound your car for just driving around some of those areas). White boy like me sticks out like a sore thumb in East Garfield Park.
I can see Dee's point. Definitely not a subject that needs to be rehashed over and over, but sometimes it is good to remember the bad times and be thankful those days are behind us. Even to laugh at just how idiotic many of the things we did were. DON'T MISS IT ONE BIT!!!