Phil Drops Out

Phil (name withheld by request) is an admitted drug manufacturer, distributor, and abuser. His prolonged drug experimentations have left him unable to function in society, so he has resorted to growing psychedelic mushrooms in order to survive. Phil lives with his friend Andrew and (Andrew's) pregnant girlfriend Sam. Andrew offered to let Phil stay with them if he provided him a computer and helped him start a batch of Psilocybin mushrooms. Phil agreed to these terms and the arrangement lasted without incident for nearly four months. At which point Andrew became increasingly frustrated with Phil on account of his lazy demeanor and self loathing disposition. Phil expresses anxiety about taking responsibility for his life, and often points to past psychological trauma as the reason why he can't seem to get himself together. But while he appears somewhat out of touch with his own reality, he fully understands that his current living conditions are a physical manifestation of the consequences of his past behavior. He knows what he did wrong, and he knows how to fix his own problems, he just doesn't know if he can.
To add further tension to the situation, Phil's hedonistic lifestyle is becoming more and more at odds with the family friendly environment Andrew and Sam wish to create for their forthcoming child. Phil is also feeling more alienated by both Sam and Andrew, who never let their growing animosity toward him be known. To this day he remains blissfully unaware. To classify Phil as a loser or junkie is to severely misrepresent and misunderstand the individual, but it's also hard to sympathize with someone who doesn't really try. He has said on multiple occasions that he has never really grown up, that his dependencies have left him in a state of perpetual ignorance.
At the end of March, 2009, Phil moved out of Andrew and Sam's apartment and began living with another friend a short distance away. The mushroom arrangement remained operational at Andrew's apartment until he was incarcerated for three months after failing a drug test. It remains to be seen whether or not they will start another harvest when Andrew is released in June.