In his manhattan apartment. The tragedy bring to go light this growing epidemic of aaron e use. You are a mom, you are supposed to set an example and you cant. Women in poll tig dues get things done. Representation is terrible. Big reasons for that is that this old boy sheen that dominates the parties really decide who gets to run. As long as they wanted music, they couldnt put us in the gas chamber. My world is music. I am not interested in doing anything else. I am full of joy. We begin with heroine. The tragic death of actor Philip Seymour hoffman comes as heroine has made a major comeback across the United States. Where the number of users has doubled since 2007. But as al jazerras janet reports, todays epidemic looks very different than the one that infected many urban communities in the 70s and early 80s. Reporter you probably imagine heroine addicts to look like this. But this weekends death of oscar winner Philip Seymour hoffman shows stereo types dont hold true. This is the new face of heroine. I was so antidrug. Before drugs like people you know, relied on me a lot of times, you could pick up the phone and say listen, i need your help. I was there. Reporter a middle class, young mom of four from long island. It was the wonder mom drug. You know. It just gave you like you didnt have pain. You know, you were doing a lot more. Reporter it started 10 years ago when a doctor prescribed Angela Benson with vicodin for her back pain. Her addiction to painkillers escalated from there. So i started noticing i was going through my precipitation very quickly. And thats when i started doctor shopping. I was going to four different doctors, and i was getting a precipitation for 120 pills each time he would go to a doctor. Reporter like so many others nationwide, an los angeles could no logger get precipitations. A friend suggested a cheaper option, heroine. And she went for it. For me to go from roxy cotton to heroine was huge. I mean, now its not a precipitation drug anymore. In my head, this is a hardcore drug. Reporter angela hit rock bottom while watching her toddler one afternoon. I was in the bathroom and my twoyearold, i didnt think he could open the door i was sitting there sniffing nigh line and he walked in and i cupped it like that thinking, you know, i am safe. I am good. And it was not too long after i shoot him out. I took myself away. And he came out and there was a play table right here and he was drawing. And he took the pencil and put it in his nose and i was like, that is it. I am done. Reporter now 132 days clean an what is on a mission to warn others. You think you can handle it. This drug is nothing to mess with. Reporter al jazerra. For more we are joined by jeff a recovering addict who is a social worker and freelance writer from pennsylvania. And sam who covers Drug Trafficking and gangs for the los angeles times, he is writing a book on the surge of heroine in the u. S. , he joins us from our los angeles studio. Its good to have you both on the show. Jeff, ill start with you. You just celebrated 10 years clean, you were a heroine user and you ar you in your peace ine atlantic its a bad time to be an injecting heroine user. What was your experience and why is it such a bad time now . I think its a bad time right now because all of the stuff that was ever bad about being an injection drug user is still out there hiv. Hepatitisc. Overdose, death potential of but there are new things in terms of the tainted drug supply in the black market more frequent, you know, boughts of fentanyltainted heroine that is very potent and easy to die using. And then also new ways for attics to get sick, like you know, drug resistent, you know, bacterial infections, skin infections, that are very easy to acquire in the community when you are sticking yourself with a needle a couple of times a day in unsanitary conditions. We saw in janets piece we saw Angela Benson and saw her heroine use being an unincidented consequence on the track down of precipitation pain pills. People who take oxycontin or vicodin and moving to heroine. And the dea says that in new york city, one oxycodone pill on the street costs 30, but buyers can get six glass owns of heroine for about the same price and thats in the same chemical family and clearly its cheaper. Sam, you have looked at this. There is heroine market something. Heroine is a commodity. The way you sell heroine, there is no difference largely between heroine, types of heroine except for the way its cut. The marketers heroine traffickers have to become expert marketers. In new york city, philadelphia, d. C. , places like that you get the stamps, the reported that Philip Seymour hoffman had a heroine stamp glass own stamped ace of spades or Something Like this. Other parts of the country you dont see that. In phil and baltimore dont control it. The folks that i am writing about in mexico two traffic in 22 states this one group i am talking about they have developed their own marking technique, that is to provide convenience, they deliver, like peds a its like the dominoes of heroine. Call a number and theyll deliver it to you. They dont put marks on it, they sell it in balloons, but in both cases you can see that these traffickers really have to pay alog of attention to masking because what they are selling is not like marijuana in humboldt county where you have various kind of heroine, very similar to Napa Valley Wines being you know, you have really good quality and really bad quality. You get very aggressive traffickers, they come to you. At least the guys that i am covering do that a lot. But, jeff, whats the psychology here . Because as you were saying, there are so many dangers of heroine, as opposed to oxycodone or vicodin or other painkillers. I understand the attraction of the cheaper price, but at least with those pills you know what you are getting. Here you have no idea what might happen to you. Well, no, you dont. And not only that, actually, nothing moves a batch of dope on the streets faster than a rash of overdoses, which is twisted. I understand. Why because people but that is because people think if hoffman died because of an overdose from that heroine, that its strong heroine and we want some of that . Yeah. Yeah, thats a good bark i gotta get some of that. Absolutely. That is part of thats part of the deal and why these fentanyl batch out breaks flare up really quickly and disappear. The supply goes dry very quickly and then it pops up somewhere else. So earlier this year, and last year you saw it move from you know, very quickly from camden, new jersey, over to philadelphia, out to lebanon p. A. , out to western pennsylvania, down to baltimore. It keeps popping up all over the place and its very unpredictable. And you dont know when its going to come around again. So for addicts who arent heavy habituated users catching one of those bags unexpectedly, is almost its almost guaranteed to lead to an overdose. Whereas, however, if you are a very heavy habituated user, who needs a lot of heroine to get through the day, yeah, when you hear on the streets that you know, the bag down the block, you know, knocked out 14 people last week, they want to know what the brand stamp on that bag is, first of all, getting back to the marketing piece. And then once you month he what the brand stamp is you can figure out which corner its being sold on, so, yeah, you can go buy that bag intentionally. I just wouldnt think of these things and its incredible that that is going on. Sam, you have called it a quiet epidemic that its just under the radar. A remarkable statistic deaths from Drug Overdose has been rises in the past two decades and interesting the leading cause of death in the United States surpassing car accidents, i was surprised when i read that. Thats a stunning statistic since the rise of the american automobile traffic accidents have always topped that list in the last few years, Drug Overdoses, principally to opiates, have taken the place of that. And the thing is, this is a very different drug playin plage thae have had for a lot of years, first of all, its rooted largely in prescribing practices by doctors, prescribing far too liberally these very strong opiates. Its a very quiet thing, you dont have if you you remembr the crack epidemic blood and kreupcrips, shootings on the st. Its a public scourge. The columbians in miami, the murder rates we want sky high. None of that has been happening with heroine. Its a quiet thing that has to do with the fact that you know, doctor says legit miced, the le. They are selling a drug statement thed by the fda. But also across the country, the people the families of people who are dieing are stigmatized, they are horribly ashamed and mortified. This is a nightmare i can situation for them. A lot of parents grew up in the 70s, they consider heroine to be the lowest form of drug use. And so they dont speak out, they dont they are they are kind of ashamed of the whole thing that their beautiful son was found dead in a mcdonalds bathroom with a needle in his arm. All of this tend to his create a real silence surrounding this. Thats changing. There is lots of new parent groups that are forming and i have talked to a number of them for the book i am writing. But by and large this is still pretty quiet and the only notoriety it gets is as we are doing right now, when somebody famous either dies or enters rehab, as with Rush Limbaugh a few years ago. Thats the nature of the plage. Its not the same as say the crack or the heroine epidemic of years ago, which is very public. And it leads to its almost as if the drug itself has kind of narc co tiesed the country in to not really caring too much. Meanwhile you have thousands of people guying every year where they are now the leading cause of accidental death in america. Its a stunning statistic. Lets hope this gives this drug playing some very needed attention, jeff, sam, appreciate you taking time come on the show and talk whether it tonight, thank you. Turn to go the olympics. Thomas bach took a surprising swing at World Leaders on tuesday. Reporter accusing them of playing politics at the expense of athletes. Without naming names it was a clear reference to obama and european leaders who have spoken about if notices used as a stage for political decent or for trying to score points in [inaudible] certainly or external contests. Have the courage to address your disagreements in a peaceful direct political dialogue and not on the backs of the athletes. For more i am joined by jewels, h he is the author of. And a prefoes or of Political Science and played on the u. S. Soccer team in international competition. Also joined by dave, Sports Editor at the nation, also the host of edge of sports radio and the author the back game over. Hes also a contributor to al jazerra. First i want a reaction from what he said. Shame a thomas bach. For so many different reasons. Physician of all his insinuation that u. S. Athletes are somehow the puppets of president obama in terms of their lgbt activism when the opposite is true. The athletes were more active before you heard one peep out of the white house. Shame on him. Its not political to have the games in sochi which is right near the chechan war zone the. This entire masquerade we are seeing over there isnt a political act in and of itself by the ioc. I want to get to that that i moment. Jewels your reaction to the businesser comments that bach made . Scoping back a bit it seems to me that when people try to argue that the olympics transcend politics, typically those people are milking the olympic could you with both hands. So its either somebody from the International Olympic committee or its somebody from a corporation who is a sponsor that stands to gain a lot of money from it. Bach also said that the ioc must be politically neutral without be a political and athletes must not use the Olympic Village and venues for polight cam demonstrations. But he also said that olympic values are against discrimination. But they gave this to sochi and they are keeping it in sochi. Was that i that a political act give it to russia . Absolutely. Vladimir putin wowed the International Community by speak big remaking an entire region of russia. When the ioc hears statements like that and thinks about the olympics that will cost more than every Winter Olympics combines that is puts stars in the eyes of ioc not agent let i athletic competition. You have both quoted a new zealand skating that came out and said he was game. You said that the time is right for courageous athletes to seize the opportunity of a lifetime the column went on it say lets hope an athlete or Critical Mass of athletes to the historic challenge what would you like to see . I yo wouldnt prescribe anything, part of being an agent legit is being creative individual. I will leave it to them to challenge the laws. I step back also because thomas bach recently said that athletes could speak out at press conferences about equality. Thats actually a step in the right direction. He also said that they could not do anything insides of a venue at a competition, on the medal stand, but thats right baked in to International OlympicCommittee Olympic charter. So that was just rehash that go. Am i right to assume that you guys would prefer more than just something at news conferences . Its less about what i would prefer and more about what i would expect. I have been stunned and frankly incredibly inspired by the number of athletes who have committed themselves to say, something is going to have to happen at these games, there is too much injustice, it just cannot stand. Let me bedevils advocate. If you go back in history. The most horrible Olympic Games of all were munich, because of the horrible terrorist acts there. But then the politics also got in the way in 1980, when we boy comed the olympics in moscow and then in 1984 when the russians retaliated and boycotted the olympics in the United States. Cant we just keep politics out it have . We can do this argument, you go first and ill go second. Thats why i have never support aid boycott i dont think its actually effective as a way of promoting political fairness. So you know, you have to show up to the games otherwise you are ruin it for the athlete who have put a whole life time of commitment in to it. Shraeufpblgt i would argue there is politics from above and below in these games. And like john carlos the 1968 olympian who raised his black gloved fist he said at lease have bodies muscles and minds and we are being incredibly, incredibly disingenuous if we expebble them not no use their minds if they see something they feel like they need to speak out about. You guys also wrote interestingly that the u. S. Has a long and inglorious tradition of attacking agents legits in their mime but only to praise them later. Do you think thats the case here if they do protest they will be praised nod. The piece we argued hope and history rise in this instance and history is tantalizingly that the trajectory of history is tantalizingly out there for us. People coming from the United States know that equality is on the way in many parts of United States. Not everywhere, though, and that should be pointed out. No everywhere for lgbt for example. One thing, though, athletes will be risk ago lot if they speak out in terms of their relationship the International Olympic committee and their future as athletes. But as far as praise back home, i think thats something that they could expect. Should the ioc simply not award Olympic Games to controversial venues . Whats your thought . I think that they shouldnt. They should think long and hard about who they give the olympics to. If a place is undemocratic or has a finger snap autho authoritarianism like paout puta does she. Shouldnt. There is in the charter you will see athletes with the number 6 on their uniforms it will be on peoples snowboards, bobsleds and this is the principle 6 campaign and what that means is principal 6 is you do not believe in any country to host the games if they discriminate against their own citizens. Human rights watch released a video on tuesday showing what they say are antigame attacks in russia and i should warn you its disturbing. Reporter wha what we see in these videos are criminals census happening the most egregious case of violence that we have seen so far and documented a migrant was lured and abducted by a group who burned his clothes, they put a gun, what looked like a gun to his head and they threaten him with violence. And forced him to say that he is game. Now, the head of the ioc said that Vladimir Putin had assured him there would be no problems in russia during these games, but after seeing that have vido put it bluntly what is the ioc smoke something. Seriously. Since putin and the russians pass the these laws the amount of hate crimes are on the rise there is a tremendous pee in gq called the iron closet that everybody should read he goes over there and details it and goes to the underground clubs and talks to kids and it really is harrowing. The idea that the ioc is not only blessing russia with the games but giving paout a inningn International Platform is frightening. I agree its horrid and demands a moment of courage and i hope an athlete whim show that courage in sochi. Lets hope the olympic have his a positive affect on what is going out there and help all the people suffering as a result of those laws good to see you both, thanks to coming in. Thank you. Coming up, if you being Hillary Clintons president ial hopes are the best shot to women to gain political power, you are behind the sometimes, plus we are talking the top story on his web whats trends something. We have talked a lot on the show about the underground website silk road. Things just got worse for the man authorities believe created the site. Details coming you feel what do you think join the conversation on twitter at ajcan considerthis or on our facebook and google plus pages. And what to expect. Start every m