marijuana addiction and the Demerol Miracle
Erdedy’s in the House mainly for ‘marijuana addiction,’ which Gately has a hard time Identifying with anybody getting in enough trouble with weed to leave his job and condo to bunk in a room full of tattooed guys who smoke in their sleep
Context
The theme's insistence that the Disease is defined by the relation, not the Substance. Gately, an oral-narcotics man, can barely Identify with anyone ruined by "fucking grass" — yet both Erdedy and Kate Gompert are here, joggling with genuine Withdrawal, mostly for weed. The scene refuses the hierarchy of hard-vs-soft drugs: what matters is the powerlessness, not the potency. And the real "Miracle" is stated flatly and without triumph — not that Gately conquered his craving but that, today, the craving for even Demerol simply isn't there, a reprieve he can't explain and doesn't own.