This chapter examines how mainstream and regional media framed the heroin epidemic of the 1970s through the lenses of criminality, racial bias, and socio-economic fear. Drawing from content and discourse analyses of major newspapers, it reveals that heroin addictionAddiction stigma was largely portrayed as a threat rooted in Black and Latino urban communities, with stories frequently emphasizing crime, decay, and moral failure. Law enforcementLaw enforcement officials dominated coverage, while public health voices and the perspectives of heroin users themselves were routinely excluded. The media employed dramatic statistics, stigmatizing language, and sensationalist visuals to construct heroin as a societal contagion rather than a public health crisis. This framing shaped public understanding and policy, fueling punitive drug laws and mass incarceration. Additionally, the chapter highlights how gender, geography, and editorial decisions further influenced the narrative, and contrasts these portrayals with more nuanced counter-narratives from BlackBlack press and drug reporting-owned press outlets. In tracing the powerful feedback loop between media and politics, the chapter argues that the coverage of the heroin epidemic not only reflected but actively reinforced systemic inequalities and punitive drug policy in the United States.