Mainstream

Has heroin gone mainstream?

I know that when my mother calls early morning here (middle of the night there) that either it snowed a lot and she can’t wait to tell me about it or somebody died. I saw on the news that it’s been snowing there in the northeast so when the phone rang…

I cannot believe we have lost another family member to heroin overdose. That’s two in the last 6 months. Another 1st cousin. We just saw him in April.

He visited my parents the day he overdosed. My mother thought he was coming down with the flu. He had just started a new job where he worked outside in the cold. My parents were worried about him.

Heroin is for other people – those kind of people. Not us. Not normal folks like us. My family is as run of the mill as it gets. Kind of a big family, weddings, funerals, family reunions, family newsletters, the whole shebang.

I've always had a stereotype in my mind of people who do “that sort of thing”. I have learned that “that sort of thing” is done by all kinds of people. Good people, bad people, rich people, poor people, people with a future ahead of them, people who have lost all hope. Heroin has gone mainstream.