Heroin(e)

Wonderful. Restores faith in power of empathy. I love Jan.

There was nothing new or revealing in this documentary for anyone who is even reasonably conversant with the news.

The one thing that stood out for me was the lady who worked at the fire department. There was no mistaking her caliber. It's people like her who lead humble lives but walk head and shoulders above the rest of us. They go about their days doing what most of us would find physically and emotionally draining to do even once, expecting nothing in return but the joy of helping another.

There are no words to express how much respect and affection I felt for this strong, selfless stranger.

The recent Emmy-winning miniseries "Dopesick" looked at the opioid crisis in West Virginia and how Purdue Pharma (run by the Sackler family) pushed addictive medications on the people, causing large numbers of premature deaths. It turned out that there was another look at the opioid crisis. Elaine McMillion Sheldon's Academy Award-nominated "Heroin(e)" focused on a number of people in Huntington, West Virginia, a small town disproportionately affected by opioids. Part of the focus is how these desperate people turn to drugs, and another part is how other people in the town have tried to help them.

Basically, the things to understand are how big pharma preyed on hopelessness, and how the community has sought to lessen the epidemic's impacts. Everyone should see this documentary.

Heroin(e) is a short documentary that tells the inspiring story of three different women in West Virginia who help people cope with Heroin addition. The documentary is informative and very emotionally captivating throughout the 39-minute runtime. It displayed some truly heartbreaking events, comeback stories, and some inspiring women. Hats off to the documentary team on this one for taking one of the biggest issues in the United States and showing how it affects so many across the country. This is worth watching for anyone who enjoys documentaries, loves stories about strong women, or is interested in the drug epidemic.

It's depressing, but I guess that's the point. It wants us not to ignore reality anymore. The haunting part is what are we to do about such a problem.