A new brand of readily available, comparatively inexpensive heroin is quickly spreading throughout the United States of America.

It’s a worrying phenomenon, moreover when one considers how easily it could bridge the gap to become a part of New Zealand youth culture.

The affordability of this new variety of drug is such that the inevitable addiction it presents is more financially sustainable, therefore is an easier habit to maintain than its classic heroin counterpart, meaning furthermore that this cheaper drug is proving much more devastating to young lives across America.

In a news report out of Miami, dealers can be seen out on the streets openly distributing this drug to passersby, indicating that its prevalence is so diffuse and its exchange so widespread, that this is a trend US police are simply unable to control.

I’m reminded of a recent seizure of drugs involving a New Zealand man who allegedly tried to smuggle 1.7kgs of methamphetamine into Bali – this 52-year-old beneficiary claims he was unaware of the contents as he was innocently transporting the bag for a woman he’d met on an Internet dating site…

Different drug, different country, sure, but the theme’s the same. It demonstrates how people are always looking for methods in which to transport their drug abroad. Much as we in New Zealand might like to believe otherwise, international drug trafficking is rife all around the world – including in the Southern Hemisphere.

…Personally, the guy’s full of it. It’s my belief that, like most of these idiots who claim to have no knowledge of the drugs up their rectum, he was looking to make some easy coin on the side then spend the rest of his life languishing in paradise.

If however, I am wrong and his story about transporting across an international border a bag full of drugs for some woman he had yet to meet in person is in fact true, well, imagine my surprise.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by P Shmocca

Photography by Draca Taika