Reaction: Black Tar Heroin

For my class recently, I watched a documentary called Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street. It follows five young adults in the late 90's who are heroin users, and black tar is a particularly addictive and heinous form of heroin. The way I've heard it described is that it "makes Trainspotting look like an after-school special." That is a pretty apt description. I noticed that several of my classmates were squirming in their seats at the sight of the needles penetrating the skin. I understand why, it’s absolutely revolting what heroin addicts do to their bodies, even being willing to shoot themselves up in the neck or jamming the needle into their muscles. However, I don’t believe in shying away from reality just because it makes us uncomfortable. This is a daily reality for more people than we think. It’s also a reality that I could never hope or pretend to understand. Yes, they all made a conscious choice to start using drugs, but then again, most of them were not as lucky as I was to grow up in a structured, supportive home. As a feminist, I was really fascinated by how sexuality is infused with drug use in several ways. I was especially interested in the opposing views on prostitution between Oreo/Jessica and Alice. Alice was just as much a drug addict as the rest of them, and yet she had principles she refused to compromise; unlike the others, she would never do sexual favors for drugs. Alice was my favorite person in the documentary, because she had a very different, articulate way of explaining drug use. Most people who talk about heroin use describe it as a hundred times better than the best orgasm, yet Alice described it as a way for young women to take away unwanted aspects of their sexuality that may be imposed on them by society. It makes me really sad to see such a creative, intelligent feminist like Alice throw her life away on drugs, but I was extremely proud of her for trying to quit in the end. I wonder how she’s doing more than ten years later. I’m not saying any of the others deserved to be drug addicts more than she did. Their drug dependence wasted away so much of their individual talents.