BLACK TAR HEROIN: THE
DARK END OF THE STREET

Year: 2000
USA: Roxie Releasing
Director: Steven Okazaki
Country: USA
USA: 75 mins
USA Release Date: 17 March 2000 (Limited Release)
USA Release Date: 18 February 2000 (Limited Release)

Synopsis

A documentary that looks at two years in the daily lives of five young heroin addicts: Jake, Jessica, Tracey, Oreo and Alice who face the ever-present perils of hard core drug addiction - crime, prostitution, rape, incarceration, AIDS, overdoses and death. Over the past few years, black tar heroin (chiva), which is cheap, abundant and deadly potent, is smuggled up from Mexico and has transformed San Francisco's drug scene. Over the last 10 years, the heroin-caused death rate in the city has doubled and more people now die from drug overdoses (some as young as 14) than from guns and knives. Despite its tolerant reputation, San Francisco is considered by many addicts to have the cruellest, most dangerous drug scene in the nation.