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Love Story: Heroin Abuse

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As a species, humans have been getting high since the prehistoric age. Drugs have been with us for a long time. Whether drug use is for the greater good or worse has been a subject of debate for social and scientific communities ever since the disciplines came into existence. While drugs have advanced us a species, with modern medicines such as penicillin and the vaccine for polio, drugs, have also hindered us as well with issues such as drug wars and drug addictions. In the documentary Swansea Love Story, directed by Leo Leigh and Andy Capper, the film takes a somewhat qualitative approach to portray what happened to the community of Swansea, Wales, as heroin use continues to rise along with the existent alcoholism throughout the community. The film follows a young couple who are a part of the drug problem. The couple themselves and almost everyone shown in the video used some type of drug. While heroin use does play a massive part the deterioration of Swansea, there were also structural and cultural forces at work.
Heroin or diacetylmorphine is a synthetic opium drug. Heroin was created by a German scientist named Felix Hoffmann around 1897. Heroin was intended to be a weaker less addictive version of morphine. However, it turned out to be more additive and about twice as potent as morphine. Heroin was marketed by the Bayer Aspirin Company as a safe alternative to morphine. However when it became publically know that heroin was worse than morphine for its addictive

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