For Ely Erickson, 28, the road to heroin began with a fall into the Sacramento River. In 2009, he plummeted 100 feet and was flown to a San Francisco hospital. The fall left him disabled with back and neck injuries. He was treated with a prescription for painkillers from a Redding doctor. But when that doctor’s prescriptions were no longer honored in late July 2013, he shopped around on the street. Finding black market painkillers too expensive or unavailable, dealers pointed him to an alternative — heroin. [read the full story here]