Hi Jasmine,
I have never used heroin, but I have some knowledge and opinions about it that I would like to share. (This is partly because I love NPR and partly because I have put so many hours into researching drugs in the past decades that I worry that a typical reporter cannot possibly do enough to get a balanced view for the purposes of one story. I have seen too many under-informed, biased articles on drugs.) I will be as brief as I can.
First, pharmaceutical-quality heroin is a relatively safe drug. I learned in a psychology class at UC Berkeley that brain scans of people addicted to heroin for the final 20 years of their lives show nothing abnormal and nothing that marks even such a long-term addiction. The main danger is with overdosing, but this is minimized if users are assured of the quality. With drugs bought on the street, however, users can't know how pure it is, and because it is usually cut, when they suddenly get a pure batch of heroin it is easy to use too much (and OD).
Second, when someone ODs on heroin, their friends are often scared to call for help, because of the legal implications of being with someone who used heroin. This leads to more deaths as people ignore the situation, wait too long to call for help, or try to dump their friend at an emergency room without staying to tell doctors the cause of the problem.
Therefore, the majority of heroin deaths are a direct result of its illegality.
Heroin is a drug, like tylenol and aspirin, that relieves pain. Human beings often have pain, as I am sure you have noticed. To be human is to suffer, at least sometimes. For some people, tylenol and aspirin are not enough to cover the pain. Those who come back from a war with PTSD, those who were abused, and many others have enormous pain. They should seek therapy and other help, but there can be a stigma against seeing a therapist, and prescription drugs to cover the pain are often more expensive than heroin, which is one reason why so many turn to heroin. They are seeking relief from their pain. The obvious legal option, drinking alcohol, does not do it for some, and alcohol is a dangerous drug as well - even more dangerous than heroin,
according to Dr. David Nutt.
There is absolutely nothing about heroin use that is related to morality. Except possibly one thing: it is illegal. (But not everything that is illegal is immoral, and not everything immoral is illegal, as I hope you have noticed.) Otherwise, using heroin does not make anyone bad, weak, or worthless - despite what many in the media seem to want people to believe. Addicts deserve compassion and help, not punishment and imprisonment.
Finally, I will point you to a really good source for information about heroin:
https://www.erowid.org/chemicals/heroin/heroin.shtml
I hope your research goes will and I am praying that you can take an approach to this topic that portrays users as human beings who are suffering, not as "bad people" who deserve punishment.
