Just Another Reminder
Cutting and grim in nature, HEROIN(E) is designed to pack a 39 minute punch to help realise the heroin epidemic that is tearing U.S communities to rubble. This particular documentary focuses on the community of Huntington, West Virginia. A mainly blue collar community that is rife with the plague of heroin addiction, so bad that deaths via overdose of this narcotic are ten times higher than the national average.
Mainly switching between chief deputy at the fire department, Jan Rader, and local judge Patricia Keller, you are only ever given brief insights to individual stories and various anecdotes of this epidemic from both females. Never do you get an extended narrative to appreciate the true grip heroin has on this particular community. It has the legs to run this story but I feel that in order to set itself apart from the endless ‘American drug crisis’ documentaries, it’s left itself short.
Some parts of HEROIN(E) really cut to the bone. The 23 year-old woman at the beginning who overdosed. Or, the overdose victim later in the programme who was being administered medical attention in a convenience store as customers continued to be served just a few metres away, as if this nothing was even happening. The most harrowing part? The officer who exclaimed “this doesn’t shock me anymore.”
Documentaries on Americas debilitating drug problem are always going to be shocking if you’ve never been exposed to these issues before first hand. You appreciate the work the likes of deputy chief Jan Rader do and how they really are the beacons of light in this cesspit of darkness that is drug addiction. However, sadly, this is just another reminder that America’s drug problem is out of control and as long as it is, we will always have a run-of-the-mill documentary reminding us of it.