Heroin: Cape Cod, USA

The movie just blew my mind. I was aware of the opiate epidemic in the states but this movie just exposed the underlying problems. 85% of crime is drug related. It seems that American children just have everything in material terms and have more freedom to experiment in drug use. One guy says why wouldn't you? It is really tragic seeing young people die so young especially the 23 year old with 2 young children. There is clearly no trying heroin because it is such an addictive drug. So in a moment of weakness for reasons outside your control your life can be destroyed by this drug. The west needs to get much tougher on drugs. Addicts should not go into detox. If you overdose you go to prison for 5 years and have daily drug tests with a year added every time you test positive. Dealers go to prison for life. Being in possession of class A drugs carries a 10 year prison sentence. Countries like Singapore realise how corrosive opiates are to society and the hidden costs of drug addiction. In the US it seems detox houses are big business everyone is trying to make a dollar out of a situation. I'm an addict, it is an illness. If it is an illness then the state can section you under mental health laws for your own safety. We have to improve society.

I have been reading these reviews, and it just breaks my heart to see what people have to say. The girl Marissa in this movie, she was my sister. She was a beautiful soul. And we miss her so much. I think Lisa, and the entire film crew did an amazing job at trying to show the ugly truth, and raw reality of what these kids faced everyday. Little did we know that we were just getting our first glimpse at people lacing fentanyl with heroin. It has become an uncontrolled monster in America. It takes anyone and has no care of who it is. Robert de Niro just lost his grandson and my heart breaks for his family. People are showing his family an abundance of sympathy during his loss, yet our family gets called druggies and junkies. I will forever be greatful to the film crew and producers who made this project happen. I believe they did their best, and really showed the world how scary this epidemic is, and that it was only just beginning.

It's unfortunate this documentary had the faults it did, because it meant well.

These were the issues that made it hard to watch for me: 1) It was a little confusing how they put together the stories of the multiple people together to create this. I understand wanting to include many different voices and experiences, but including so many different people meant that some of the people didn't get to tell much of their story.

Personally, I love watching these to get inside the heads of an addict so I can empathize better with those I care for and my loved ones. This didn't really offer much of a look into their minds and hearts because they had to be told so short.

2) Some of the people interviewed seemed genuine. They were raw and vulnerable, and really seemed to care about being a part of this documentary.

Others seemed to be more interested in bragging (literally) about stealing, neglecting responsibilities, and how they were a "better" addict than others. These were hard to watch.

I understand they wanted a range of experiences. I'm not judging these people's lives. We all have our stuff we go through and it's great that these people put their struggles and vulnerability on display to raise awareness.

I just feel some of them weren't interested in doing that, it seemed they just wanted to be on TV or something. Maybe if they had allowed us to see more of their stories it wouldn't have felt like this. I feel like they just randomly introduced people who wanted to brag.

3) They spent a long time describing how "amazing" the heroin high is. I mean like at least 15 minutes. I understand that they need to let people understand why the drug is desirable, but they didn't need to spend so much time explaining it. My boyfriend is a recovering addict (3 years clean!) and he had to walk away from this because it was so triggering.

I get that it's going to be triggering in a sense because of the topic, but he likes watching docs about heroin addiction because it helps him stay sober, seeing how far he's come and doesn't want to go back to that life. But this was super detailed, multiple people describing the high in very intimate ways.. I don't understand why they'd spend so much time just talking about how great it feels. Isn't this about awareness??

4) The interviews with the healthcare officials seemed randomly placed too. They didn't add to the story told before they jumped in. They just jumped in with random facts.

At one point, a pharmacist said "I don't know myself, but I have heard oxycodone produces a similar high as heroin". You don't know this?! They are both opioids... Why would they even include this clip in the documentary? This is supposed to be informative and the professional chosen to educate the public is admitting she doesn't know much.

Scary that a healthcare professional wouldn't know that honestly, considering they've linked the heroin epidemic to the over prescription of legal opioids in the late 90s/early 00s.. people turned to heroin when they cut down on this. This is universally known information. Again, if she didn't know about the heroin epidemic, why include her?

TL;DR: They could have made a great documentary so easily honestly. A pretty standard formula, considering the bulk is supposed to be focused on getting to understand and empathize with the people telling their stories. Instead this gave many surface-level accounts from people who use heroin. They spent 15 minutes detailing what a heroin high is like and emphasizing how amazing it feels.. in a documentary meant to spread awareness. Some of the healthcare professionals in the documentary admitted they didn't know much about the heroin/opioid epidemic but were somehow chosen to be in a documentary about it? The entire construction was messy and poorly executed. It almost seemed more like a reality show rather than a documentary.

To quote one of the addicts in this documentary, "..Like, I just want to be with my heroin and me and nobody else."

I really used to feel bad for drug addicts, alcoholics, people hooked on meth, or some other drug of choice. Now, they have no impact on my soul anymore. Absolutely none. I had a friend who was an addict, and I saw the horrible choices she made, and rejected all the help that was offered to her, really good genuine help. I understand that heroin is truly truly addictive and all these druggies think about is the next high. But like I said, I have absolutely no empathy for them, not any more.

The fact that so many young people are hooked on this garbage is what's really sad because these are the people who would've been professionals later or good people, or good parents, or good friends to someone. But when one of these drug kids said after she got out of the hospital from an overdose and she was given Narcan, she went back out into the parking lot and shot up again. Well, if that's your choice, good riddance.

I watch these documentaries sometimes hoping to see some kind of change trending, but it doesn't. And yes I do blame the doctors for prescribing these opioids. I blame them as much as I blame these idiots making poor choices for their lives. And some of these young girls are leaving children behind. What can you do? Absolutely nothing.

This is a documentary that you can find on HBO on-demand and it's a part of a documentary series looking at issues in different parts of the country. It's a look at heroin addicts (among some other substances connected with it, like oxycodine and painkillers), all living on Cape Cod in Massachusetes. The focus is simply on the addicts themselves, which is fine up until a certain point. It's a collection of people who are in desperate ways, some started on their paths with no desire whatsoever to do drugs (some via bad accidents where they needed something to deal with the pain, which painkillers don't really do anyway in a concrete way), and may be facing death (and some of them, sadly, lose their lives in the course of the making of the documentary - a few of them it's easy to see, but others it's a tragic case of relapsing after being sober for a while), and it's compelling. It can't help but being so when looking at such desperate characters who, by their own admission, are facing perpetual downward spirals without proper treatment.

I think if I wished for something more it would have been two things: that there was a focus on the location itself - it's in the title so it's not outside the realm of question - as Cape Cod is an interesting and captivating place where people come for vacation year in and year out (it's mentioned briefly how people who stay on the cape don't have much to do, which isn't very detailed). Why is the Cape different than other places? Is it because of the state itself and what it offers (how is it different than, say, Florida which is also a tourist destination)? Or is there something else that attracts these people to use in this place vs any other place (perhaps addiction is becoming rampant nationwide and this is just the focus, but if so why).

The other thing was a little more focus from the medical side of it, or just another perspective to mix in with all of the testimonials from the addicts; the access is without much in the way of a filter - you feel like you're often there in the room - and yet there's no other voice to talk about why heroin addiction has become so rampant in this section of the country. This isn't to say this is something to avoid, far from it - if you're on HBO and see this and are compelled to watch something new about the world of heroin addiction, this has some good moments and tragic details. But the subjects carry some depth on other programs like Intervention.