Podcast: My uncle and heroin: ‘What surprises me most – you have no teeth’

[Jemmons]

"When her uncle turned up in a shelter in New York, Sarah Resnick experienced first-hand the devastation that can be caused by heroin. She also discovered, in spite of alarmist headlines about the new “heroin scourge”, how little is known about how to treat drug addiction..."

Guardian podcast

[notawinger]

1. I just listened to this podcast

It is not very encouraging. I've experienced a lot of these same issues with my son, it seems there is no fix for this. What is really sad though, here in the United States there is not much of an appetite to help the addicted. Living in A very Conservative part of the U.S. makes it even that much harder

[Jemmons]

2. Depends on perspective...

I find it encouraging that she talks about "...how little is known about how to treat drug addiction..."
People are waking up to the fact that just as you cant cure ulcers with bloodletting or leeches, you might want to offer something better as treatment for addiction. It needs to get worse before it can get better, so that enough people wake up a bit. Or at least we need it to be clear how bad things are at present!

[notawinger]

3. Agrred

It does depend on perspective, we do need to be clear how bad this problem has become. I'm afraid many more lives will be lost before it is truly dealt with in a meaningful way.