The Current New York City Heroin Scene

Abstract

This article discusses the use and distribution of heroin in New York City, both historically and especially currently. Data on the current situation derive in large measure from the Heroin Project, a recently completed five-year ethnographic study of heroin in New York City funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Findings about the new, young heroin user, particularly in regard to demographic characteristics, patterns of use, modes of ingestion, and involvement in crime, and some of the ways in which the new user is similar and different from the “old time” heroin user are presented. In addition changes in the New York City heroin markets over the years are discussed. We note the effectiveness of methadone maintenance treatment in terms of its impact on heroin-related crime, make suggestions as to how methadone treatment could be expanded, and review current heroin policy and the War on Drugs, with a focus on the New York State Rockefeller drug laws and the need for policy reform in this area.

• Heroin
• New York City
• Heroin user
• Heroin markets
• Heroin policy

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Barry Spunt

Barry Spunt, Ph.D., (USA), Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, at John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY is also on the doctoral faculty in Criminal Justice at the CUNY Graduate Center. Involved in substance misuse research for over 20 years, beginning at NDRI (National Development and Research Institutes), his early work focused on methadone treatment, especially methadone diversion and crime among methadone patients. He has been awarded a number of major grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), focusing on the relationship between drugs and violence. He was Principal Investigator of a NIDA-funded ethnographic study of the heroin scene in New York City. He has also been funded to study the relationship between substance misuse and gambling, and substance misuse among the disabled. Dr. Spunt is on the editorial board of Substance Use and Misuse and a faculty member of the Middle Eastern Summer Institute on Drug Use (MESIDU) in Israel and in Italy.