Chasing Heroin is a two-hour documentary that investigates the heroin crisis in the United States. The documentary details the opioid epidemic and how police, social workers and public defenders work to save the lives of addicts. The documentary explores the origins and continuing causes of the heroin epidemic, such as: the massive increase in opioid painkillers from the turn of the century, Mexican drug cartels that are now entrenched in class neighborhoods higher average and the cheap price of heroin compared to prescription painkillers. During Chasing Heroin, a program in Seattle called LEAD is explored. This program directs addicts to a system that directs them toward help (rehabilitation, temporary housing, counseling, methadone treatment) instead of jail time. The main idea that becomes the driving force of Chasing Heroin is that treatment is more effective than incarceration. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay The long history of doctors avoiding prescribing opioids for fear of addiction is mentioned several times throughout the documentary. Before the mid-1900s, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was created to tax those who manufactured, imported, or sold any derivative of opium or coca leaves. In the 1920s, doctors became aware of the highly addictive nature of opioids and began to avoid treating their patients with them (Center, 2004). In 1924, heroin became illegal. However, according to a history published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003, anesthesiologists opened "nerve block clinics" in the 1950s and 1960s to manage pain without resorting to surgery (Meldrum, 2003). This desire to treat pain without surgery has been a major factor in the opioid epidemic we see today. In 2008, the overdose death rate was almost four times higher than in 1999, and sales of prescription painkillers in 2010 were four times higher than in 1999 (Paulozzi et al, 2011). The rate of admission to substance use disorder treatment is also higher than in 1999, and was six times higher in 2009. Heroin's claims about fear of prescribing painkillers are correct, as there is an increase in public policies surrounding early opioid use. 1900s. Rising rates of overdose deaths and increasing numbers of people seeking drug treatment suggest that fear of prescription opioids was justified. Chasing Heroin presents the idea that methadone clinics destroy neighborhoods because they cause an increase in the number of drug addicts in an area. However, one study compared violent crime statistics from approximately 53 state-funded treatment centers in Baltimore to 53 liquor stores. Areas around liquor stores have been found to experience greater numbers of homicides, rapes, aggravated assaults, and thefts per business than areas around drug treatment centers (Furr-Holden , et al., 2016). There was a 25 percent increase in violent crime around liquor stores compared to treatment centers. These results show that increased activity in an area due to addicts receiving daily methadone and other treatments does not lead to increased danger for a neighborhood. The hunt for heroin highlights the fact that people.