A major heroin epidemic swept through the United States from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, with addiction rates increasing tenfold. The drug became prevalent among a wide swath of youth, from hippies in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury to soldiers in Vietnam and inner-city communities in Baltimore and New York, transforming heroin use into a national crisis.

The 1960s heroin epidemic is chronicled in the literature of the counterculture, including the works of poets like Allen Ginsberg and novelists like William S. Burroughs, who wrote from personal experience. The epidemic also inspired a wave of confessional poetry and rock lyrics that detailed the despair and alienation of addiction, making it a key subject of the era's artistic expression.