The horrific toll of America's heroin 'epidemic'

Heroin abuse in the US has been spreading beyond inner cities, resulting in a sharp rise in addiction and death. Chicago is a hub for cheap, pure and plentiful heroin, much of it supplied by Mexican drug cartels.

Chicago's "L" train green line leads directly to the open-air drug markets on the city's west side.

As we travel the route with one of the addicts, Jason, he phones his contact. He wants two bags of heroin, each costing just $10 (£6). The dealer meets us, and within seconds two tiny bags are handed over.

This part of Chicago has been ground down by neglect, drugs and crime, and residents talk openly about the narcotics on sale.

Of the four people who stopped to ask what we were filming, all said they had taken heroin.

The police are here, but they seem to face daunting odds as the heroin abuse spreads.

Nearly half a million Americans are thought to be addicted to heroin. One woman we meet in a county jail - she was locked up for stealing to feed her habit - calls it an "epidemic".

"I don't think these police officers know how bad it is out there - I really don't," she says.

Back on Lower Wacker Drive, home to central Chicago's destitute for nearly a century, five heroin addicts are injecting in an underpass.

Some bleed as they repeatedly stab the needle in - desperately trying to force the light brown fluid into their bodies.

Greg can't find a vein and injects straight into his bicep - what he calls "muscling it".

"My arms are fried ," he says. "It sucks. This is what I have to do nine out of 10 times is muscle it because my arms are so trashed."

Stacey first took heroin when she was just 11. Now the two of them live like husband and wife in this subterranean netherworld, partners, addicts and the parents of three young boys.

"The hardest thing is just not being there for them," says Greg. "I think about them every day. I try to just numb it with this dope but it's just hard, man."

Much of the heroin supply comes from Mexico, where production has risen more than 600% in the last 10 years.

Heroin is often cheaper and easier to use than prescription drugs, some of which have become more expensive, harder to obtain and harder to abuse - they now come in versions that are not so easy to grind down to snort or dissolve.

Last month Mexican authorities arrested Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the suspected boss of the Sinaloa cartel.

The Chicago Crime Commission (CCC) named him last year as the city's Public Enemy Number One.

Much of the heroin supply comes from Mexico, where production has risen more than 600% in the last 10 years.

Last month Mexican authorities arrested Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the suspected boss of the Sinaloa cartel.

The Chicago Crime Commission (CCC) named him last year as the city's Public Enemy Number One.

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) estimates that the cartel supplies as much as 70% of the illegal drugs sold and used on Chicago's streets.

But it's not clear that the arrest will help stem the flow of heroin, especially if demand in the US remains strong.

Chicago police make a heroin arrest The recent death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman from an accidental overdose of a mix of drugs including heroin drew attention to something the police have known for a while - heroin now crosses all boundaries.

"Heroin addiction is probably at its all-time high," says Special Agent Jack Riley, the DEA's regional head.

"I've been doing this for 30 years in virtually every corner of this country and if anything can be likened to a weapon of mass destruction on a family, on a community, on society, it's heroin.

"I just don't understand why people across the board don't see its danger. Social services are overwhelmed, our healthcare services are overwhelmed, yet Mexican organised crime and street gangs make billions from it."

Research suggests that nearly 34,000 12-17 year olds are now trying heroin for the first time each year, as the drug becomes cheaper and more readily available than ever.

Two fresh-faced victims of heroin: Steven Lunardi (right) has been clean for more than a year, but Stephanie Chiakas (left) died of an overdose, aged 17

Understand that this is being imposed upon us. We are under the influence of the $Trillion cartels in ways that are beyond most people’s comprehension.

I guess I'm one of those who don't comprenhend it, then. I don't know how someone "imposes" hard-core drugs on someone who doesn't want them. ("Just Say No", anybody?)

No snark intended -- I really don't understand this viewpoint. But I'm damn sure sick of hearing how we need to PAY for all the endless treatments (most of which isn't too successful anyway.)

That is because you didn’t have this level of deceptive, abusive, drug promotion, spoon fed to you in your most vulnerable years. If you were indoctrinated with porn, cigarettes, or any other vice, by national marketers as a child, I can almost guarantee you will end up a smoking porn addict. That just the way our human brain works. Think for a minute that the same entity enabling the destructive drugs trade is responsible for American children’s education, regulating childrens medication, their health care, social services, etc. Can you say “danger” son?

You came out ok, you’re lucky. NONE of us have ever dealt with this amount of cheap, pure, heroin on every corner. It is so pure it doesn’t need to be injected. Heroin is so addictive that one try your done, even people with blood and needle phobias eventually do turn to needles. Addicts become desensitized to everything, including their children, and death, just like apathetic media programmed Americans. Heroin is being sold out of McDonalds. Elementary school kids are taking it to school.

It is dangerous. We are being inundated with killer drugs all over the place. This isn’t just happening in Chicago. There have been deaths from Chinese marijuana everywhere, especially Colorado, and nobody cares. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/21/when-synthetic-pot-kills.html

In Colorado the black market for pot is stronger than ever, because they can sell with impunity. Cops arent going after them, and they’re cheaper with no overhead. This was never about medicinal use. There have been numerous deaths reported around the country, but there are no national numbers. nobody’s counting or telling. 221 sickened by K2 in Colorado:

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/12/12/cdc-221-sickened-by-synthetic-marijuana-in-colorado/

We aren’t dealing with cigarettes or liquor, which have much more regulation and control than legal marijuana and prescription opiates. Sadly these are American children being exposed to a danger that has destroyed civilizations. Soros has been funding and pushing drug legalization since the 90’s. Heroin was always a part of that plan.

I am in absolute agreement with your statement: “Bottom line is, until this country grows up, get’s over the pop culture addiction, stops trying to live the wacka wacka good time California 60’s/70’s porno/druggie lifestyle, it’s just going to get worse.”

It is truly heartbreaking...

I recently was listening to a lecture from an SSPX conference. This speaker nailed it:

“Our present dark ages, seem to want anything that is the opposite of God.”

Fr Cyprian, Our Lady of Guadelupe Monastery

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