Shooting Heroin

The United States is a country of laws. What happens when lawmakers are too slow to act, and politicians have other “more important” priorities? Writer/director Spencer T. Folmar takes us directly into the opioid war in his feature film, Shooting Heroin.

Set in the Rust Belt of Pennsylvania, military veteran and new father Adam (Alan Powell) returns to his hometown to tend to family business. At the request of his mother, Beth (Cathy Moriarty), Adam checks in on his sister to see whether she’s clean or at least out of trouble. Though she says she is, the reality is she’s in too deep, and OD’s not long after Adam leaves.

“As more and more citizens of this small town die from opioid abuse, law enforcement is spread thin.”

As more and more citizens of this small town die from opioid abuse, law enforcement is spread thin. In fact, it’s all on one guy, Officer Jerry (Garry Pastore). He means well and wants to help, but again, he’s one guy, and he’s bound by the constrained of the law and due process. He’s got to catch the dealers in the act of selling if he wants to make an arrest.

After a meeting with Adam at a local bar, Adam convinces Jerry to let him form a volunteer drug task force. Included in this group is Hazel (Sherilyn Fenn), a mother who knows tragedy all too well and speaks to high school students about the subject and Edward (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), a corrections officer whose fed up with the city’s inaction and wants to take things into his own hands.

Shooting Heroin, at this point, becomes an escalation of frustration amongst its characters. The harder they try to fight the war, the law is there to restrict their ability to enact real justice. Eventually, someone’s going to cross the line, and things won’t end well.