DISTANT DRUMMER: FLOWERS OF DARKNESS PART 2 OF 2
Being I was born in East Harlem and I was a Heroin Addict during the late 70's, 80's & early 90's. The film hit the nail on the head regarding why people turn to Heroin. The scenes of Manhattan were very hard hitting and descriptive. Being I knew every place that sold Heroin, among other drugs in upper Manhattan, it brought back some memoires. I see the film as a tool to show the element of Heroin abuse that occurred during that era.
Nowadays, if you walk the same streets of upper Manhattan, you are not going to find very many people on the corners selling drugs like you did 20 years ago. So, the movie is a little dated. But, addiction is addiction, weather you are in Harlem or Holland for that matter. I could personally relate with the movie because I was part of that generation. $100 was a lot of money in those days and the strange thing is, a dime bag of heroin is the same as it was 20 years ago. In some cases I was able to score heroin that was almost twice as good as it was 15 years earlier at the same price.
I think the reason why the Heroin became better and the bags bigger was when that movie was filmed the Heroin was coming mostly from Asia and the Middle East. In the early 80's Cocaine was really sinking it's fangs into the streets of New York City and Crack was being produced and most of the Cocaine was coming from South America. The Colombians realized it was just as easy to grow the coca leaf as it is to grow the poppy. So, South America started bringing in Heroin the same way they brought in Cocaine and being South America is closer to America than Asia for example.
The price dropped and the quality was better. It went from China White to Colombian White in the 1990s. Hence, putting the Heroin from Asia "out of business." Plus, the Mafia had also lost most of the control over the drug action in New York City. The Colombians took over after the fall of the Mafia.
by Dave aka ICE007
