This NYC Public Health educational public service short is making the rounds on TCM underground series, its also on Youtube. From 1969 it shows how a heroin junkie slowly kills himself walking around Harlem stealing for money to buy heroin which we get to see him taking at the end. I am surprised at the criticisms directed to a public service short. Seems like there is more bitterness to American society then the film itself. Also being critical of production standards to something done on a shoestring budget seems unnecessary. I wanted to make the observation that when I was a teenager living in Hartsdale, New York (I was born in Manhattan but moved to Hartsdale when I was 13), I used to run around with my best friend George (who was black, I'm white) in search of scoring weed. Places we would go to would be "the Jamaicans" where George would go alone while I waited outside in the street (he said they didn't want any white people there), and a "shooting gallery" a building that is easy to find on Google Maps. Search Hartsdale New York and go to the street level view of the intersection at Central Ave and Hartsdale Ave. If you look North on Central Ave, to the right is a 3 story white apartment house. Inside there in the late 1970s lived a bunch of heroin junkies. I think many of them were on public assistance for mental issues. One night I was upstairs sitting on a couch with George observing junkies shooting up. A black guy I didn't know personally took a needle identical to the one Donny B uses in the end, an eyedropper with a needle attached. He jabbed it in between his toes, shot himself up, smiled, pulled it out (now covered in blood) and directed it to me asking if I wanted some. I had never watched this short before today but looking at that needle made me vividly remember that night. Lucky for me, I took my street wise friend George's advice as gospel, he told me never to try heroin and I always listened to that advice. With a cool soundtrack song and realistic message of doing junk as a path of life that will destroy you, I would recommend this educational short. Compared to its predecessors from the 1950s and 60s its a lot more realistic. 10 of 10 as a curiosity and for its message, stay away from smack.
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