Curtis P. McMaster

About the author: Curtis P. McMaster is a primary counselor at the Institute of Human Development, a substance abuse rehabilitation center in Atlantic City, NJ.

Heroin addiction has serious consequences for the addict and society. For the addict, addiction results in desperation, deteriorating self-respect, and declining health. For society, addiction fuels the destruction of inner cities such as the ghetto in Philadelphia, where the illegal drug trade prospers in the midst of terrible poverty. The prevalence of addiction to heroin and other drugs in the United States has produced countless programs designed to prevent addiction or treat it once it occurs. These new methods of stemming drug abuse will save some people from the horrors of life-long addiction, but many lives and communities will continue to be destroyed because of drug abuse.

Aglaring orange summer...