Naked Lunch

An elderly drug user asks if anyone has seen “Pantopon Rose.” Pantopon Rose is not a person but a reference to something that the drug user, like all users, is chasing—that is, the elusive feeling of euphoria after first taking a drug or addictive substance. In this instance, it’s clear that Pantopon Rose isn’t findable when Lee says, “This is no rich mother load, but vitiate dust” (166).

Someone the narrative describes as The Sailor is in a cafe speaking to a boy who wants to buy drugs from him. Something bites the boy, which, the sailor explains, isn’t anything real, just “coke bugs” (167). Technically known as formication, this is a symptom of prolonged cocaine use in which the user has the feeling of insects crawling over or underneath the skin—even though it has no physical cause. The owner of the cafe, Joe, explains how he once saw a woman with the “coke horrors” (167)—anxiety deriving from cocaine use—run screaming through a hotel claiming that Chinese police were chasing her. Despite his unsettling drug-use symptom, the boy offers The Sailor money in return for drugs. However, The Sailor tells him, “I want your Time” (168), not money.