Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street

I was flipping channels late one evening and I caught the last half of this film. It was horrifying and bleak yet absolutely fascinating, like watching a car accident in slow-motion.

The filmmakers set out to tell the truth about the effects of heroin addiction by following the daily lives of a group of black tar heroin addicts in the San Francisco Bay area. We see them become progressively sicker, thinner, paler and even lose hope of going clean. Three of them (2 guys and a girl) work as prostitutes to support their habit (2 later test positive for HIV). All the while they remain remarkably candid about their condition and we learn all we'd ever want to know about this sad lifestyle.

I recommend this film but people with delicate sensibilities might want to stay away.

Schools and drug awareness programs should use this film!

It was hard to watch the needles in the beginning. Needles in the arm. Neddles in the foot. In the neck. Then the needles stopped mattering. It got hard to watch the users. You end up realizing that these addicts are people, not just dirty bodies walking the streets. You can figure out why these people cannot stop. You see that they made a mistake a long time ago and that mistake held on. All of their friends are part of that mistake. Who do you go to when your trying to fix a mistake? Your friends. Notice how this won't work. This film makes you see these people as people. The types that have to sleep on sidewalks. Find this film and watch it.

In an attempt to do the impossible, Black Tar Heroin... is an insiders look into the life of a Heroin addict. This commentary on youth in San Francisco which are involved with Heroin, among other things, is a graphic display of society's problems. Though the movie at some points is to grotesque to watch, it is necessary to show for the value.

Every youth in society as they reach their teen years should be made to watch this movie. It is in the mind of this viewer that many of teenagers would be turned off enough, never to attempt this lifestyle.

The people in this documentary are the saddest, most pathetic group I've ever seen in my life. They shoot up, prostitute, then repeat. Unflinching, pretty hardcore. HBO makes really good documentaries, not trying to sugarcoat or alter society, they convey it to us with a style that is not added, but already there.

This is the best anti-drug movie ever. Unlike the many movies that have been made about drugs, that can't help ladling pyrotechnics and playing up the "glory", this movie shows hard drug use for what it is - thoroughly dehumanizing. Enter at your own risk.