'Chiva' is street slang for heroin -- and heroin is a hot topic. This book uses creative non-fiction to merge the global epic of heroin trafficking with the human-scale story of its presence in the small desert town that boasts the most per-capita overdose deaths in the US. Compelling, disturbing yet hopeful, the book is both personal and political, revealing the relationship between colonisation and drug abuse, and the importance of reclaiming sustainable culture as a key to recovery.