Eric Detzer was the other kind of junkie. His clothes were clean, his arms clear of needle marks. He held a responsible, interesting job. His wife and two children could depend on him for love and support. And for eighteen years Eric Detzer's mind and body could not function without regular doses of opiates, the same opiates in the heroin mainlined by street junkies.

From his early days, sharing needles with hookers in San Francisco tenements, to his midnight forays stealing poppy plants from old ladies' gardens in rural Washington, Detzer's picture of drug addiction conveys both the absurd and the frightening facets of the disease.

The ravages of withdrawal during the poppy's off-season, the euphoria induced by Detzer's special narcotic tea, the impossible Jekyll and Hyde act of an addict's daily life are discribed without sel-pity or sermons.

Poppies is not for the squeamish. You will be immersed in the nightmare of Detzer's addiction and exhausted by his battle to regain sanity and self-respect. Above all, you will discover an exciting narrative voice that entertains with outrageous humor while telling an extraordinary story.

Eric Detzer is a psychiatric social worker who has publshed numerous articles in his field. He lives and works in Washington.