Hoffman, Heroin and Addiction

An excerpt of my guest appearance on The Jerry Doyle Show, as radio talk show host Jerry Doyle and I discuss the shocking death of fellow actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.  With a lot of fingers pointing at Hollywood, it’s worth repeating Jerry’s words “Addiction knows no zip code … no race… no gender … no political affiliation… no profession…”

Particularly tragic is the rise in both heroin use and prescription opiate abuse in the U.S.  As the New York Times points out Prescription Painkillers Seen as a Gateway to Heroin (Benedict Carey):

Experts in addiction say that the use of medications like Vicodin, OxyContin and oxycodone — all opiates like heroin — has altered the landscape of addiction and relapse, in ways that affect both current users and former ones.

“The old-school user, pre-1990s, mostly used just heroin, and if there was none around, went through withdrawal,” said Stephen E. Lankenau, a sociologist at Drexel University who has surveyed young addicts. Today, he said, “users switch back and forth, to pills then back to heroin when it’s available, and back again. The two have become integrated.”

Just click on the audio bar below to listen.

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Then check out a related post I have up at ANI’S BLOG — Tom Junod’s Cruel Tribute to Philip Seymour Hoffman, where I take issue with Esquire Magazine’s Tom Junod edgy and cruel dismissal of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s life and tragic death.

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