It's not Suzanne's fault that she became addicted to heroin at 16. For a while it numbed the emotional pain of the abuse she suffered as a ward of the state. Four years later, she uses heroin three times a day just to feel normal. She never knows how strong it will be and has overdosed six times in the past year. Without the first aid of ambulance officers, Suzanne would be dead - like four of her friends who died from overdoses in the past year. [continues 803 words]
FOR a substance that started out as a family-friendly cough suppressant and non-addictive morphine substitute, heroin has certainly gained a fearsome reputation since the late 1890s, when Germany's Bayer Company first marketed it. There are still some elderly retired midwives around who fondly recall heroin (available legally here until the mid-1950s) as a near-perfect sedative for labour pains. From pain-free birth to painful death, heroin has become one of our most reviled and misunderstood substances. [continues 799 words]
