The Three Wise Men of Dope - This Ain't no Holiday Inn: Down and Out at the Chelsea Hotel 1980-1995 - page 86

The 7:00 a.m. Pow Wow
JAMES RASIN
Toward the end of his life, Herbert was so sick, and had so little control over his
bowels that he was shitting in the wastebasket. In his room there was no toilet. He
had to walk down the hall.
I said to Stanley Bard, “Can't you just give him a room with a bathroom?”
And Stanley just growled and wouldn't do it.
When Herbert was in the hospital, he was in a lot of pain. I'd go visit him, and
I remember once I held his hand. He was squeezing it so tight and said, “James,
I never thought dying would be so painful!” He was in a lot of pain! We were
there—me and Jerry and Raymond Foye—Raymond was taking charge of these
decisions to be made, like whether Herbert should be force-fed through a tube.
There was a huge battle to try to get Herbert enough meds to relieve the pain.
He had such a high tolerance level for opiates. The doctors' thinking was, “We
can't give him too much pain killer because it'll trigger his addiction again and
he'sinthemethadoneprogram.”Imean,hewas dying! Buttheyweresaying,“No,
if he's in the methadone program, he can only be given such and such amount.”
It was inhumane! Fortunately, there was a doctor from Thailand who was much
more empathic and willing to bend the rules a little bit. He upped the dosage a
little bit.
DIMITRI MUGIANIS
The last time I saw Herbert Huncke, he was living in a back room, a very small
roomwithabathroomdownthehall.ItwasHuncke'sbirthday,andhewasdoinga
reading with Gregory Corso at St. Mark's (Church). It might have been Huncke's
last reading. It was a great reading, incredible, and it's shown in the movie The
Original Beats. In front of everyone, a jam-packed crowd at St. Mark's, Huncke
ends up getting in an argument with Corso. Those two were always arguing about
one thing or another.
After the reading, the actor Richard Gere came up to talk to Huncke, and he
sortofhadHunckecornered.Inthemeantime, IknewHunckewantedtogethigh,
and I wanted to get high. But Richard Gere was talking and talking and talking
while Huncke nodded and remained very patient and gracious. This was Richard
Gere, who was everywhere on TV and in the movies!