Jonathan Melvoin was a backup keyboard player for the rock group Smashing Pumpkins. On the night of July 11, 1996, he died of a drug overdose. The drug that killed him is a brand of heroin known on the streets as Red Rum--that's murder spelled backwards.

When news of his death hit the media, it caused an astounding reaction among other drug users on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The demand for Red Rum skyrocketed. "When people die from something or nearly die," explained one police official, all of a sudden, there's this rush to get it because it must be more powerful and deliver a better high."

This is but one more example of how drugs produce their own peculiar brand of insanity.

Addiction, Death, Fear, Pleasure, Self-Deception, Sin Rom. 6:23; 2 Tim. 3:4; Titus 3:3

Choice Contemporary Stories & Illustrations For Preachers, Teachers, & Writers
Craig Brian Larson, Baker Books, p. 72.