Pediatric heroin patients are three words that should not be in the same phrase together.

9 to15!? Jesus. Talk about getting them young. Imagine having to kick smack before you learn long division

I never knew about this substance.  I clicked because I thought there was something amiss with my charcuterie.

When I OD on Cheese I just get bloated and gassy

I cant believe there is a market for drugs targetting 9 to 15 year old kids. I was worried about mowing lawns for pokemon games at that point in life thats nuts.

If a hell exists, theres a special place in it for people who distribute hard drugs to children

This pretty much is how drug epidemics start. I went to school in a fairly rural, normal, American town, no drugs going around other than weed and maybe some pills here and there. Next thing you know, one of the cool kids met a junkie in his 30s who told him how great heroin was, and all it took was a >40 minute drive to East Cleveland. he and all his friends started using it and selling to other kids and got others to use it (me included). We didn't use any fun names, we just called it heroin, and yet, from 2010-2012 nearly two thirds of the whole school was sniffing it up, a LOT of the kids got bad addictions, including me (got clean in 2016, still doing good) It's like an infection, it doesn't just spread fast, it spreads at an EXPONENTIAL level!

“It’s time for me cheese, Gromit”

South Park said it was cat piss, man wtf lol.

9:56 There's a mistake here, diphenhydramine is Benadryl ( psychoactive) diphenhydramine is the "p.m." in Tylenol PM . Tylenol is acetaminophen / paracetamol. which is non psychoactive. The distinction is important because it sounds like cheese was basically the same thing as chiva. However combining the Tylenol with these opiates can lead to  liver damage. Not trying to "well actually" I just think the distinction is valuable

Edit , correct information  here 31:42 32:01

“Why’s it called cheesing? Because it’s fon-to-due”

I took a narcotics class taught by a retired Dallas PD narcotics detective. Cheese was one of his last cases before retiring the 2010s and one of the issues his team ran into was how young the kids taking cheese were. Normally they would arrest an adult addict and turn them into an informant to lead them to the dealers. At one point the idea of having the same kids becoming informants was floated before getting shot down for obvious ethical and legal reasons. Ultimately a "scare straight" campaign was ran showing students the effects of addiction and overdose which help dry up the drug's customer base while other methods were used to find the dealers.

when you pass your dealer, you gotta pay the cheese tax.

“First one’s free, tell your friends” standard practice.

Oh my God.  I wondered how the hell my uncle got addicted to heroin of all  drugs in middle school circa 2008 (meth was the go to)..... it was cheese.  It makes so much sense.  He evenutally got clean of heroin, but he was a construction worker in a halfway house in Kansas when the pandemic hit.  There was nothing to do BUT sit around and drink and his liver couldnt take it.  He was 27, the same age I am now.  I miss you Stacey

I lived in Plano and graduated in 1999. A lot of kids were overdosing in 98 & 99. It was bad. Found a friend stuck between the bathtub and toilet, unfortunately too late to save him. No one knew what they were snorting.  ER doctors came and explained in graphic detail what happened when someone overdoses. MTV was following kids and interviewing them.  People really thought that if you snorted it, it couldn’t hurt you that bad. It was bad In the neighboring towns of Allen and Mckinney, not just Plano.

Back in the late 80's teens would openly use drugs at the high school I went to: dropping acid and huffing. Saw one guy passed out drunk in front of the gym one time. It was an upper middle-class suburb that had nothing for teens to do. Bored teens with money are going to do drugs.

I grew up in Plano in the 1990s. My roommate ODed on this stuff. I didn't know that it was a local thing. Plano was a rich neighborhood, but raving with drugs was trendy and cool for the rich kids. It was actually losing popularity by 1997, it was a lot more popular 1993 to 1995.
By 2001 I moved away to start over. It probably saved my life.

Kraft Foods’ own illicit narcotic was as deadly as the narcotic “Cheese” however they were forced to relabel it as “Kraft Heroin Singles” as it was determined by the FDA to contain no real cheese or any dairy product

As a recovered opiod addict of 6 years myself who started oxy's when I was 15 and spent half my life running from withdrawls, it breaks my heart seeing all these kids that didn't make it out to live a full life. RIP 🕊🙏🏼
For those still struggling, if I can do it, so can you and the worst days being clean are better than the best days as a using addict.