Blog Post - Friday, May 9th

Non Fiction Critical Analysis - "The Heroin Epidemic"

By Deborah Sontag

           To begin, the overall main idea of the article is that heroin should be avoided as much as possible and people should act upon others using such an addictive and deadly drug. The entire text is mostly about a girl named Alysa who went through hard times with her mother and died of a heroin overdose. The author, Deborah Sontag provides background information on how heroin enters the U.S., why it’s illegal, how many people die of overdoses, and how the reader can help. This information helped me comprehend the text. For instance, Sontag explains why people are dying more and more every year from a heroin overdose; two million dollars’ worth of heroin is smuggled and sold every week which increases the amount of overdose deaths. Also I did not understand why people even used heroin and why young teenagers used it, but Phil Drewiske’s life helped me understand. Sontag explained how Drewiske was overusing a limited amount of painkillers that were in his grandfather’s cabinet but then the discovery of heroin helped him greatly. Moreover the author explains how heroin “is derived from poppies. Ironically, it was first manufactured in 1898 by the Bayer pharmaceutical company as a treatment for tuberculosis and a remedy for morphine addiction. I turned out to be even more addictive—and deadly.” All this information is connected to the main idea since they are both on the same topic: heroin. These details support the author’s position on heroin use since they are negative facts.

            Furthermore, Deborah Sontag wants the reader to think that people should stay away from heroin and money is a large issue in its trafficking, as well as its use. Her article makes the reader feel like acting upon the addicts who fall for drugs. Sontag achieves this using several techniques. First of all, she makes the reader think heroin is dangerous with the title: “Portrait of a Heroin Victim,” which is followed by a portrait of Alysa Ivy and a caption. The caption states “Alysa Ivy’s fatal overdose at 21 has made her one of the faces of a grim epidemic.” The introduction of the article’s topic, alone, tells the reader that heroin is a life threatening drug. Another way Sontag shows how dangerous heroin can really be is by presenting a line graph of the increasing heroin deaths among 15 to 34-year-olds in the United States. According to the graph, the amount of heroin deaths increased by nearly nine hundred. It shows that the amount of heroin deaths each year increased by about an average of sixty-three people. Moreover, Sontag demonstrates how heroin can ruin someone’s success; “Actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Cory Monteith died of overdoses involving heroin,” even though they were making a good living out of acting. Following that, Sontag describes how heroin makes so much money even though a bag only sells for six dollars here in New York. In other states, Vermont for instance, a bag of heroin costs forty dollars, which is almost seven times as much. The use of these techniques is how the Deborah Sontag achieves the feelings that she wants her readers to feel.  

            In conclusion, I believe that, not only heroin, but taking drugs is pointless. I always thought that drugs were bad but when people buy them, drug cartels become influenced to produce and sell more. It’s outrageous how they make a living out of growing and selling a drug that can cause instant death. What I want to know is why someone doesn’t just get a doctor instead of taking heroin for whatever problem they have.