Heroin has been impacting the Long Island community for years. Substance abuse treatment centers have been having an increasing difficult time with helping addicts who need it the most. The in-depth topic of heroin addiction is a very delicate issue which can have several perspetives throough which observe it. Nowadays, it’s one of the most widespread and deadly drugs in the world. And now it’s also cheap: one dose costs less than a pack of cigarettes. Heroin has developed a frightening grip on New York’s youth in a way not seen for decades. Half of the young people who admitted using to heroin say they started with prescription drugs (Percocets and oxycodone), also known as opioids and then they switched to heroin. It’s very different from the previous opioid epidemic, which was just heroin. That was in the 70’s. That epidemic disproportionately affected people who were low-income and non-white. It was disproportionately African Americans and Latinos. This time around, the epidemic is almost completely white,†and upper medium class. For many people, there is a clear distinction between what actually happened and what they wished would have happened in a given situation. Sometimes, people realize a number of options they could have or should have taken instead of the action they actually took. This feeling of regret or second-guessing is summed up in the shoulda coulda woulda. In my project I tell the story of Thomas , a resident of Long Island and heroin addict for 35 years . He has a long and sad history behind him: because of overdose he has lost his wife.
Thomas began using heroin at the age of fourteen and had to live with this addiction for most of his life.
Thomas has two children, but he has never been able to take care of them; they have been brought up by his mother.Thomas is currently in the long process of detoxification, a decision taken in order to rebuild relations with his daughter and his son.
Thomas has decided to redeem himself and tell his story as a way to give meaning to his life, trying to find a way to raise awareness among the younger generations, who are suffering from the same addiction, because the heroin plague is back, as strong as it was in the 70s
