The H scene in Arizona is so deeply intertwined with meth. Not really sure why. Anyway, everyone and I mean everyone here calls heroin Black. The white powdered form of H (China White) only makes its way here on special occasions, but everyone starts drooling when that stuff makes its way Southwest.
I've always wondered how different H scenes are in other parts of the country. Like what drugs people mix it with, the overall subculture, etc.
I'm only familiar with the Alaskan heroin "scene" but it's the same way here, re: the relationship with methamphetamine. I don't even know any addicts who don't also do meth, although meth is very much "recreational" for most of them and only an occasional thing, whereas heroin is more of a real addiction that causes problems (the same generally isn't the case with tweakers, though, most of whom don't use heroin from what I've seen). Heroin in Alaska is 100% "number 3", which either looks like sticky black tar or (less commonly) brown powder, I've never seen china white in my life...although I've heard that china white is often a mix of things that include fentanyl, and fentanyl is somewhat popular among a certain subset of addicts here.
Tar is expensive as hell here so people either have small habits, or have big habits and deal with being dopesick all the time. Heroin users will often help each other out here, although there is of course the same kind of selfishness and predatory behavior that is typical of the drug world everywhere.
From what I've experienced, the drug trade in areas of the USA operate in two general modes: the "professional dealer" mode and the "community of addicts" mode. The professional dealer mode is when you go down to a street corner or certain spot to cop, from gangs or affiliates of organized crime etc, or certain other things like "delivery services" and such. The kind of thing that people from Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta etc describe here. The community of addicts mode is more a small town/rural phenomenon, I think, and that's where the majority of dope gets brought in small time by drug users themselves, who also happen to sell. That's kind of how things operate here.
Usually when you do a lot of drugs in the rural community your dealer becomes a close friend.
My heroin dealer back when I used occasionally was a young woman who also used the drug herself. We would hang out sometimes and get high, she sold me tar and I'd sometimes sell her weed (or trade a certain amount of weed for a certain amount of tar)...she was kind of attractive, actually, at least from the neck down...she was naturally pretty but over ten years of hard drug use had taken a toll on her facial features. She didn't like her life and we often talked about her desire to stop using and all that, she always had a look of fatigue and deep sadness in her eyes, still kind of makes me depressed to think about. The only time I saw her happy was when she was high. The last time I saw her, she was getting evicted from her home that she'd lived in for years & was struggling unsuccessfully to hold back tears. Also had a young daughter who she'd smoke heroin in front of...I didn't exactly have a favorable opinion of that.
A lot of people I knew who also used talked shit about her because she was supposedly selfish and always just looking out for herself but, while she certainly wasn't generous, I can say that she never once ripped me off or mischaracterized the shit that she sold. It was always on point and it was always fire (well, for this area anyway), she was responsible for a lot of hours I spent blissfully high as fuck. She was always "on", too, and if for some reason she didn't have it, she could get it quick, had good connections. And that's really all I want in a drug dealer. As a human being generally speaking she wasn't all that great, although the fact that she was a junkie had a lot to do with that...wherever she is now, I wish her the best and hope she manages to kick opiate addiction one of these days.