Much of the heroin problem is created by black tar heroin, which is far more addictive than the brown cartel heroin. It comes from Mexico and the dealers are nearly always illegal aliens. Black tar heroin has destroyed communities across the country, communities that previously had no heroin problem. The dealers are, for whatever reason, ordered to sell only to whites.
Hillbilly Elegy is on my reading list.
I occasionally wonder if letting addiction take its course isn't a good option. The general impression is that rehabilitation works about 15% of the time. In other words an 85% failure rate. And treatment is very expensive.
The folks who are addicted consume welfare benefits, commit lots of property crimes to feed their addiction, and are involved in lots of violent crimes, both at their level and upstream throughout the distribution networks. The concentration of wealth that is created by production and distribution of illegal drugs funds destabilization of countries in central and south America. Honduras has a homicide rate of 90 per 100,000 per year. Because it is the major trans-shipment point for drugs from South America (e.g., Columbia) to the United States.
I do not participate in the illegal drug industry or community. Except to the extent that I am a taxpaying citizen of the United States, and therefore bear much of the cost. It appalls me to hear people proclaimed as experts say that we need to destigmatize drug use. The opposite is true, we need to stigmatize it to the nth degree, and impress all children from a young age that things like heroin should not be touched.