On Saturday evening, I witnessed something very interesting while riding the subway. I was minding my own business, when a man sitting in front of me began to unpack several peculiar items from his jacket. While acting suspiciously frantic, he pulled out scotch tape and a small, clear bag filled with an obscure substance. Another student on the trip turned to me and said, “I think he is about to do heroin.” Sure enough, he began to constrict the inside of his arm with the tape, while slapping it repeatedly. Horrified, I stopped looking.

According to a study conducted by the state of New York, “Reported overdose deaths in New York in which heroin was a contributing cause reached a record high of 825 in 2014, the last year for which data are available from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).” The increased usage of this drug, and alternate pain-killing substances are believed to be the result of a few different factors. The most prominent is low income, and the harsh realities which often come along with this (especially living in NYC). Fox News believes that the increase could be attributed to better healthcare, because it can cause people to be more careless about their bodies and what they put into them.

I am not sure exactly what drives people to hard drugs such as heroin. But I can say that after witnessing this, my drive to solve the problem of addiction has definitely increased. Sometimes it takes big city experiences to wake you up a little bit. Like the 8.491 million+ people living in this city, the opportunity for observational learning also never sleeps.

Emily Leclerc

5.09.17