Topic: heroin

Nonetheless, years of drinking and drugging and lapsing and relapsing will invariably have an effect on the victim of addiction.

They qualify for the diagnosis, but have not yet experienced the sort of problems that are usually required to motivate a serious attempt to abandon drug use.

The benefits of the program are framed mostly in terms of harm reduction– what doesn’t happen.

That’s not so different from any number of celebrities who’ve died of accidental overdose in the years since the War ended.

Sadly, the notion of addiction as a disease remains counter-intuitive for many Americans, who instead assume it’s the user’s own fault, the result of some horrendously unwise decision-making process.

The first time around, I thought it was the best-ever depiction of the impact of addiction on all levels of society– individuals, groups, institutions.

Epidemics do tend to end at some point, but they leave considerable destruction in their wake.

Heroin was a product of the Bayer Company of Germany, marketed as a preferred alternative to morphine– stronger, and thought to be safer

Instead of sleazy criminals and foreign warlords, the misuse was initially at the hands of trained physicians, with the confidence of medical authorities.

Chimayo and surrounding Rio Arriba County have long struggled with heroin overdose rates that exceed ten times the national average.