A&E Investigative Reports – The Junkie Next Door: Women and Heroin

Client: A&E – Investigative Reports
Format: Documentary
Broadcast: 1999
Duration: 50 minutes

WINNER: 2000 Telly Award

For hardcore heroin addicts intimate knowledge of the drug and its deadly consequences isn’t enough. As we will discover, turning back the clock on addiction is impossible.

Heroin is one of the most addictive drugs known to mankind. Just the word conjures up images of back alleys and street dwelling vagrants. We reveal that heroin has moved from the mean streets of the inner city to the family rooms of America, and the drug is cheaper, purer and more available than ever before. The latest target market–young, suburban women. When the fashion industry turned heroin in to something “chic” many young women were listening. We’ll meet the women who could be your daughters, your friends’ daughters or your neighbors, all in love with a drug that might kill them.

Once thought of as an ‘underground’ drug, the use of heroin is on dramatic and deadly rise, particularly among young people. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, heroin use by American High School seniors has sky-rocketed 100% since 1990. The drug is much more pure – reaching up to 80% pure – and that means that new users can experiment the drug by inhaling it. But, while they may begin by snorting they quickly switch to injections for a greater high.