From the autobiography of Jim Carroll of the same name the film dramatizes his early experiences with addiction.
Jim and his friends huff the fumes from solvent soaked rags on a ferry (0:04). He writes about huffing "carbonic cleaning fluid" (0:24).
Jim snorts cocaine (?) with a straw (0:29, 0:31).
Jim takes unidentified pills to get high (0:32).
Jim views the body of his dead friend Bobby in church (0:33).
His friends share a joint (0:34) while Jim grieves Bobby's death (0:35).
Jim's first experience using heroin (0:38). He describes developing addiction (0:41), withdrawal (0:44) and thoughts of stopping.
Jim snorts heroin (0:45). He talks about how he wants to stop but cannot (0:47).
In the locker room before a basketball game Jim and his friends examine unidentified pills, wondering which are "uppers." Jim takes a black one (0:49); all three become intoxicated, unable to play (0:51).
At their home Jim's mother confronts him with his pill stash and kicks him out (0:56).
Mickey applies a tourniquet and injects himself in the back seat of a car the three friends have stolen to get money for drugs (0:58).
Jim injects himself in a "shooting gallery" (1:00). A junkie cooks heroin with a spoon and candle while Jim watches (1:02).
Scenes alternate between Jim with a needle and his mother praying for him; Jom nods (1:03).
Mickey dramatically pretends to shoot himself in the head with a pistol he steals from a store the three rob hoping to find money for drugs (1:06).
Reggie flushes Jim's drugs (1:15), forces Jim to withdraw in his friend's apartment (1:17) beginning one of the most graphic and extended scenes depicting heroin withdrawal I have seen in a film.
After tasting newly purchased heroin Jim announces to his friends that it is no good (1:26).
With obvious pain Jim's mother refuses to give him money or let him in the apartment (1:30). She calls police who arrest him. This appears to lead to a period of recovery. He talks about staying clean in prison even though he could easily obtain "junk" there (1:34).
After his release from prison Jim turns down heroin offered by his friend Pedro whom he encounters at a theater entrance (1:36). We see him, sitting enveloped in darkness, deliver a monologue about addicts, then the lights come up, revealing an audience (1:36).