Users described leaving overdose victims in public places, hoping they would be discovered and helped by others. Heroin's effect on the human body and psyche, recorded by scientists, artists and countless victims alike, is well known. Official commentators on heroin addiction never discuss why this is the case. The drug has been described as an all-powerful painkiller. People get addicted to heroin for all sorts of individual, even accidental reasons.
Researchers cite the glamorization of the drug in recent films and music as one factor.
Taken as a whole, however, the rate of heroin addiction and death by overdose has to be seen as a measurement, one among many, of growing despair and hopelessness. Many young people in the US think very little of their chances in life. It should be noted in this regard that the Pacific Northwest, where the epidemic of overdose deaths is taking place, is home to one of the great success stories of American capitalism, Microsoft. Clearly many are not convinced.