Emergency room admissions for heroin overdoses have doubled since 1991, with the most dramatic increases in overdoses in urban centers such as Baltimore and Newark. No one can say with certainty why drug addiction is so rampant in this corner of the Southwest, a place of dramatic ochre and rust-colored vistas that is often seen by outsiders as synonymous with spiritual purity. The drug is easy to find in places such as Espanola and Cordova. A recent study by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that the availability of heroin in rural areas now matches that of big cities. Nearly everyone agrees that the region's unrelenting poverty is a factor.
People are in pain.
The town's plaza, the site of a small church, is surrounded by dirt streets barely wide enough for a car to squeeze through. Rain has carved deep ruts into the roads, and a pair of gutted adobe buildings loom nearby. Several inebriated men, their reddened faces already numb by late morning, greet a visitor. William Trujillo, a slight man of 49 standing in a sour cloud of alcohol, said he too had used heroin for a few years. Don't ever mess around with that kind of thing.