...and it is interesting to see how much things have changed in 46 years. This was narrated by - of all people - Paul Newman. Some of the material is factual - how heroin gets into the country, its history,etc. And some of it may have been true in 1972 - that most addicts were, at that time, from the inner cities. But these facts are certainly not true today. The opioid addiction problem has, in turn, made heroin a problem in such places as rural Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky - places where middle class jobs have fled and left people feeling desperate and with no options and wanting an escape from reality.
It does a few things that were probably viewed as progressive for the time, such as recommend treatment for addicts rather than just locking them up, the value of a community for ex-users that is similar to AA for alcoholics, and the value of studying the brain activity of addicts to get to the underlying cause of addiction.
It is mainly of historical value at this point in time.
It does a few things that were probably viewed as progressive for the time, such as recommend treatment for addicts rather than just locking them up, the value of a community for ex-users that is similar to AA for alcoholics, and the value of studying the brain activity of addicts to get to the underlying cause of addiction.
It is mainly of historical value at this point in time.