Pubdate: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 Source: Metrowest Daily News (MA) Copyright: 2003, MetroWest Daily News and Herald Interactive Advertising Contact: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/619 Author: Laura Crimaldi Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) ADDICTION TAKES POTTER, OTHERS Two months before a heroin overdose took his life, Holliston's Michael Potter told his sister a "healthy fear" of needles had kept him away from the drug for nearly 20 years. Then, at age 38, he moved to Cape Cod and met a woman who shared his addiction to drugs and alcohol. "That's when he started shooting up," said Kathy Bouchard of Bellingham, Potter's sister. The heroin addiction put an end to Potter's lifelong struggle with drugs and alcohol by killing the 44-year-old man in August 2001. Along the way, Potter contracted HIV and Hepatitis C, fought to stay sober and spoke candidly to hundreds of students in colleges and schools statewide about HIV/AIDS and the dangers related to drugs and alcohol. "It's just a vicious cycle so you say to your kids, 'You don't ever want to go down that road because it's just a vicious cycle and you know where it's going to go,'" said Bouchard. The fatal path Potter took is landing more and more Milford-Franklin area residents in the hospital. The number of people hospitalized for opiate-related illnesses in the Milford-Franklin area rose by more than 110 percent between fiscal 1998 and 2001, according to data released by the state Department of Public Health. Since 1998, opiate overdoses have killed 21 people from the 12 towns that make up the region, including 10 from Milford, three from Franklin and another three from Northbridge, state DPH figures show. Also, of the 1,192 local men and women who checked into drug treatment programs from July 2001 to June 2002, the state DPH's Bureau of Substance Abuse says 416 used heroin. Meanwhile, the number of arrests made for illegal possession of heroin are not as high because police focus more on cracking down on dealers and rehabilitating users. Between 1998 and 2002, Milford Police filed 20 charges for illegal heroin possession. Uxbridge Police have 23 illegal heroin possession charges on the books for the same four-year period. Franklin Police brought 27 illegal heroin possession charges to court, and Blackstone Police filed nine charges between 1998 and 2002. Hospitalizations vs. Arrests Unlike marijuana and cocaine users, heroin addicts are tougher to bust because the way the drug is taken -- and its small packaging -- forces users to be more secretive about their abuse, law enforcement officials said. Also, those who are convicted are usually sentenced to complete a rehabilitation program. "A bag of heroin is no bigger than a silver dollar. You can walk around with a silver dollar in your pocket for days and the police are not going to know about it," said David Traub, spokesman for Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating. To be charged with illegal possession of heroin, police have to find the substance on the individual and then send the drug to state police for testing. "Simply because they used the drug isn't enough to charge them," said Milford Police Chief Thomas J. O'Loughlin. If a user goes to a treatment facility for assistance, prosecutors are hesitant to pursue cases because they usually don't have enough proof. "Really simple, with a possession of (heroin), they are not going to go into state prison. Treatment is the objective," said Traub. Heroin can be injected, smoked or snorted. Some users cook heroin in a spoon to liquify it so it can be injected. Most illicit heroin is a powder, varying in color from white to brown depending on the amount of impurities or additives. "Black tar" is another form of heroin which is commonly found in the western and southwestern U.S. It is produced in Mexico and is sticky like roofing tar or hard like coal, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In many cases, most people busted for heroin possession cross paths with police because of non-drug complaints, like a motor vehicle stop. For example, a call for a domestic violence complaint recently landed a Milford man behind bars for heroin possession and other drug and assault charges. Michael T. Ostaski of Prospect Heights was sentenced on Jan. 17 to six months in jail after police caught him last October carrying a hockey bag bulging with heroin, cocaine, marijuana and $6,500 in cash. Police caught up with Ostaski after receiving a complaint he had assaulted his girlfriend with a steak knife. Other heroin users run into trouble with the law in desperate attempts to feed their habits. Shoplifting, stolen checks, robbery and prostitution are some of the crimes addicts commit to feed their habits. Earlier this month, Sherri Harrison of Natick was nabbed for a pair of bank robberies on the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border that police say were fueled by her heroin addiction. "There's a lot of crimes that just piggyback. After a while, their life is their drug," said State Trooper Sgt. Dennis Brooks, who works for Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley's narcotics division. The Onset of Addiction Bellingham's Bouchard said her brother's battle with drugs began when he tried alcohol for the first time in sixth grade. "That led to pot, which led to cocaine," said Bouchard. "The drugs were more powerful than anything." Potter's life became a series of derailed fresh starts. He landed great jobs in the computer field but lost them. He completed Marine Corps training and then went AWOL and landed in prison. Whenever Potter headed out to Framingham, his family worried because that's where his "drug friends" lived. "He wasn't a violent person. He wouldn't hurt another person. He hurt himself," Bouchard said. "With his personality, the drugs are the last thing he should have ever touched." The occasions Potter would beat his addiction stay with Bouchard like small victories. One night when the brother and sister were in high school, Bouchard, in tears, begged Potter to flush his drugs down the toilet. "So I want to see you flush them down the toilet," Bouchard said she told her brother. "And he did," Bouchard said. Police say the road to addiction for most users is paved by a cat-and- mouse game chasing that very first high. Intravenous injection gives the greatest intensity and quickest onset of the initial rush that users experience, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Those users experience the rush within seven to eight seconds while the euphoric feeling usually hits those who sniffed or smoked the drug within 10 to 15 minutes. After the initial high, users may experience alternating feelings of alertness and drowsiness and slowed breathing. Brooks likened a user's first experience with heroin to the sensation of taking a warm shower. "As high as you are, you can never get there again. The second, the third time you just keep chasing that monkey," said Brooks. Addiction Grows More potent drugs, cheap prices and increased availability are some of the reasons more and more people are caught chasing the heroin "monkey." Statewide, 42 percent of people who entered state substance abuse treatment programs in fiscal 2002 used heroin. That's up from 19 percent in 1992. "It's out there more. It's better. It's cheaper," said Northbridge Police Chief Thomas Melia, who is also chairman of the Blackstone Valley Regional Drug Task Force. Heroin that once cost $35 now sells for $6 with the same potency level, Melia said. The way people use heroin is also bringing the drug to a younger audience. "The problem for the young kids is that they're snorting for the first time," Brooks said. "They think there's not a negative stigma to it if they snort it." A December 2002 survey of students nationwide by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the University of Michigan shows 1.6 percent of eighth-graders, 1.8 percent of 10th-graders and 1.7 percent of 12th-graders reported using heroin at least once during their lifetimes. "It's alarming," Brooks said. Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses and liver disease, according to the National Drug Control Policy office. They also run the risk of contracting HIV, and hepatitis B and C. Of those 1,187 people in the central part of the state living with HIV/AIDS, 43 percent were infected while injecting drugs, according to state figures. Beating the Addiction Potter battled for years to kick his drug habit. He joined support groups, sought treatment, was trained to talk to others about HIV/AIDS, moved home with his parents and touched the lives of hundreds of students. But when a Framingham "drug friend" took him out one day in August 2001, Potter never came home. "He just couldn't believe in himself, could he?" a friend asked Bouchard at her brother's wake. For many heroin addicts, the hardest part of kicking their addiction is getting out of the social circles that fuel their behavior. "It's almost like they have to create a life that isn't imbedded in the life of drug use," said Rosemarie Coelho, vice president of Wayside Youth & Family Support Network. Wayside offers outpatient treatment and support for heroin users at their offices in Milford, Framingham, Marlborough and Waltham. One term that makes Coelho cringe is "heroin addict." "That's a delinquency term. They become a threat for us, a criminal," she said. "They are our neighbors, our brothers and sisters. These are the people we know and love." Even though Potter could never beat his addiction, his family finds enormous comfort from the letters they received from students that demonstrate how powerful his life was. One letter, signed by Milford Middle School East teacher Jodi Sevatos ends, "His memory will be with me always. Keep these letters with your memories. Thank you so much for your wonderful son." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake