"Taking Care of Business" Updated: A Fresh Look at the Daily Routine of the Heroin User (From Life With Heroin: Voices From the Inner City, P 31-48, Bill Hanson, George Beschner, et al, eds.)

• NCJ Number: 156243
• Author(s): J M Walters
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: Lexington Books
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: DCC

Annotation

The Heroin Lifestyle Study (HLS) was designed to develop a more accurate perspective on male heroin users and their lifestyles.

Abstract

HLS respondents were committed, daily heroin users who spent most of their time obtaining the money and connections they needed to maintain their habits. Along with their heroin use, 44.6 percent of the men reported using other drugs in the course of a typical day, including alcohol and marijuana. In order to support their lifestyles, heroin users engaged in hustling, begging, borrowing, stealing, pushing, and taking whatever legitimate jobs that came their way. In some respects, however, the men led quite ordinary lives, sometimes not unlike those of nonaddicts. A typical day in the life of heroin users is described, and ways in which they meet the challenges of poverty and addiction are discussed. 1 note