A Scanner Darkly

This is my third book by Philip K. Dick.  Right off I will say that his future/alternative universes really kind of suck!  They aren't light reads, however well written.  I will plug on and read the rest of his work (seeking for something...I know not what, I'm pretty sure that it won't be sunshine and happiness), but perhaps I will limit it to once a year so that I can choose how often I want to be bummed out. 
A Scanner Darkly was just awful.  Awful in it's subject content.  I am pretty rigid in my stance on drugs and alcohol (hate, hate, hate it!), so reading a whole fictionary book about users was a real chore for me.  And it was predictable too, though some of the conversations between the characters that were high was interesting (in print!  If I had to actually listen to this kind of talk, say like in the movie with Keanu Reeves, I would be shutting that off in a very rapid manner).   
Just imagine what Dick would have been capable of if he hadn't been a user himself?