This article explores the changing nature of inheritance among Hispanos in northern New Mexico. Specifically, it examines how Hispano families have reworked the traditional application of inheritance, referring to property passed down the generations, to conceive of heroin addiction as ‘inherited’. It shows how this emerging formation of inheritance is shaped by, and refracts back upon, past configurations of property and belonging. This article reflects on intergenerational addiction as a modality of connection and continuity, but one that is entangled with experiences of loss. It highlights the implications of this tension for anthropological understandings of inheritance, addiction and the embodiment of history.