The Streets Of San Francisco
Poisoned Snow(First aired: 1975)
'Snow' - just another word for heroin - white like snow but deadly.
Detective Turner and his girlfriend are working undercover in the junkie scene of San Francisco, trying hard to arrest of some of the dealers. Turner has to let his girlfriend investigate because he has a meeting with his ex-wife. She wants to talk with him about their son - Andrew (Mark). Andrew is causing his mother some trouble. He's not the best at school, and his mother doesn't like his 'friends'. She also complains that her ex-husband has too little time for Andrew, and asks him to talk with their son. Andrew stands a few steps away, playing with a small wooden piece. He can imagine what his parents are talking about. When his father is talking with him, it seems his thoughts are with his girlfriend. He believes all the lies and promises Andrew is telling him - especially about his 'cold' and why the boy needs money again.
Turner blames and accuses himself that it was his fault that his girlfriend got killed by a junkie while he had to deal with all these family problems - that he wasn't at her side. His hatred for the dealers and junkies is growing with every minute. They are nothing more than dirt and garbage for him - worthless to live. So he plans his personal revenge by buying cyanide - a poison you actually use to kill rats - in a drugstore. He gets information where to find one of the dealers and that he has a charge of 'snow' hidden in his car. While his partner is hunting down the dealer, Turner has the time to mix the poison with the snow. Then he tells his partner there weren't any drugs in the car. A few days later the first junkies die, poisoned by cyanide. Stone and his partner are looking for the source for this. Dealers and junkies are scared - they, too, want to know the source. His rage and thoughts of revenge, combined with the loss of his girlfriend clouds Turner's mind more and more. Willingly he gives his son more money - only a bit surprised what he needs it for. Finally he finds the guy who shot his girlfriend - but he's already dead. He feels like the winner - that the guy got what he deserved. Only belatedly does he understand the message about his son. Andrew is on the way to the hospital - poisoned by cyanide. It takes him awhile till the truth breaks it's way into his clouded mind - that he killed his son. And yet -the junkies are still garbage for him - including his son as his partner said. The winner and hero, Turner, though he was became the loser who lost all.
