by Jack Shafer

About the author: Jack Shafer is the deputy editor of Slate, an on-line magazine published by Microsoft Corporation.

In July 1996, the press reprised one of its favorite stories: Heroin is back. The news hook was the death [in New York City] of Smashing Pumpkins side man Jonathan Melvoin, 34, while shooting scag in a Park Avenue hotel. The Washington Post Page One obit on Melvoin claimed—without substantiation—“a resurgence in heroin use in the ’90s,” while the New York Times asserted that the “heroin vogue has been building since at least 1993 and shows no signs of ebbing.” Trainspotting, the 1996 movie about young Scottish junkies, provided another useful occasion for noting this alleged trend.

Always Coming Back

“Smack Is Back”? For the press, smack is always...