Depths of Heroin: US Falls Into Opioid Abyss | Al Jazeera America

30.9.15

Depths of Heroin: US Falls Into Opioid Abyss | Al Jazeera America:

“I prostituted my body and slept with anybody, anything to get what I
needed to get high,” said Mary Woodward, candidly acknowledging the
extent of her problem, as Kristian Cristello looked on.


“I would literally beg, borrow, and steal just get the money,
manipulating people that I cared about … just to get the money to feed
my addiction,” said the third inmate, Krystle Lightner. “I regret
choosing heroin over my children. The hardest thing to deal with, to go
to sleep at night knowing that. That’s not natural, it’s not right.”


From 2002 to 2013, heroin dependence and abuse in the United States increased 90 percent, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in July. The rate of fatal overdoses quadrupled since 2000. Moreover, the number of Americans who said they’d used the drug in the last year went up by 65 percent; that means more than half a million people in the U.S. take heroin.