Skaters and Drugs Outtakes: Duane Peters
Monday, July 22, 2013 at 11:46AM This one is pretty heavy. Here's Duane Peters' take from back in '03. Photo: From the TWS 30th Anniversary Issue. Duane was number 23 on our list of most influential skateboarders of all time.—ME
DUANE PETERS:
“If you’re interested in drugs, you’re going to experiment. In my case, punk rock was really new. I was young. I came from a broken home and skateboarding was already a good outlet from that. I started drinking real early. I really liked the (Sex) Pistols. I liked Sid Vicious. I liked the destructiveness of it. It looked appealing and attractive. As soon as heroin came around I was in. I found it and it found me.”
“I know plenty of guys that smoke weed and will never try heroin. It’s a matter of whether you enjoy upping the stakes. If you do, there’s going to be price to pay. The maze of life gets harder. You could end up dead. It all depends on the luck of the draw. In my case, it totally took over my life. I was completely satisfied with drugs. I became everything I never wanted to be. At a certain point, you cross the line and there’s no way out. You can’t even leave your house without it.”
“I wasted so many years. I did jail time. Heroin made a wreck out of everything around me. Right off the bat, you hurt the ones you love. You do anything you can for a fix.”
“I was sixteen-years-old, doing the Skateboard Mania show and I had television producers shoving coke spoons up my nose. All of a sudden, you’re at mansions on the hills with Hollywood types and model chicks. They’ve got living rooms with Jacuzzis and water falls in the bathrooms and some producer is putting coke up your nose and pouring you drinks. What are you gonna do? You’re going to fuckin’ whip it.”
“It wasn’t until shooting up came in that you really had to hide it. I’d be at a nice house and somebody would draw a line of coke on the table and I’d ask them, ‘Is this line mine? Because if it is I’m going to do what I want with it.’ I’d scoop it up, take it in the bathroom, get my rig out and shoot it. Then I’d go back and ask for another one. Next thing you know, I’m not at any of the parties anymore. I’m a complete loner and I’m homeless. You finally have a wake up call and your pushing a shopping cart, hiding some fucking blanket you found because you think somebody is going to steal it, and people are calling you a bum.”
“I was shooting up, living in a ditch and got rushed by these three Mexicans for a piece of shit watch that didn’t even work. They stabbed me seven times in the knee and three times in the back with these fucking shanks. I was swinging my board around at these fuckers and the funniest thing was I was rushing so much from the coke that I couldn’t climb out of this four-foot ditch. I finally got these guys off me and I was running down the street covered in blood when the cops came. I had three warrants but they told me to get the fuck out of there. They wouldn’t take me in their car because I was such a fucking mess. You have to use your imagination but everything bad that could happen happened to me”
“I used up all my tokens early. When they’re gone you don’t get anymore. Take it easy and you can make the party last your whole life. Otherwise, you end up with some big decisions and you can’t have it both ways. My statement to the world is ‘Don’t use up all your tokens.’"