Pubdate: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2005 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: Alan Feuer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) FOR ADDICTS, KILLER DOPE MUST BE GOOD DOPE The addict, maybe more than anybody else, understands the hard nature of certain truths. A habit is a habit, after all, and sometimes only dope can scratch the itch. "Your desperate seeker that's sick and needs a fix don't care," said a man called Bane, who says he has been on and off heroin for almost 20 years. "They want the high, and in an act of desperation, they'll disregard things." Even, he said, if they see someone overdosing. Bane is 34 and, like many addicts on the street, goes by a name of his own choosing. He was sitting yesterday in Tompkins Square Park with friends and strangers alike - men like Skywalker, Dante and L.E.S. Jewels - talking of the recent round of overdoses in the neighborhood and passing back and forth a newspaper with the headline, "Bad Smack." The police and health officials are trying to determine whether a lethal batch of opiates or cocaine caused the deaths of at least six people who apparently overdosed on heroin or a combination of heroin and cocaine in Lower Manhattan in the last week. They include a homeless man who was discovered in a storage center in SoHo and another man found dead on the floor of a portable toilet near Pier 54 on the West Side. But there were also two young college girls who died - Mellie Nicole Carballo and Maria Pesantez, both 18 - and it is they and they alone, the addicts say, who have brought the attention of the wider world. The addicts, after all, have been through this before. In 1991, they say, it was the Tango and Cash brand, a synthetic drug called fentanyl, which, being sold as heroin, killed 17. Three years later, it was China Cat, a blend of heroin so pure it killed a baker's dozen in less than a week. The recent rash of deaths has inspired caution in the park, but also bravado. The thinking is that killer dope is strong dope, something to test yourself against; if the stuff is deadly, it must be good. "I died four times in one day, and I'm still here," said L.E.S. Jewels, a skinny 35-year-old from nowhere in particular. Under his left eye there are four blue tattooed dots. They stood, he said, for the four times he overdosed last week. "People figure if they can handle it, it means the dope is good. It means they have more tolerance for the stuff." Jewels may soon be heading out of town - maybe out to Eugene, Ore., he said, to stay with friends. He mostly gets around by freight train. His meals are often from soup kitchens and are almost always free. It is his belief that a tainted batch of heroin came to town sometime last week. It may have been cut or sprayed with something poisonous, he said, or exposed to some sort of toxin in a warehouse or a truck. The brand, or stamp, that knocked him out four times was from a blue bag, he said, though another in a clear bag also knocked him out. If you are wondering, by the way, what it feels like to overdose four times in a 10-hour period, Jewel is not much help. He doesn't remember a thing about how it felt. "You just don't know it's coming," he said of an overdose. "It hits you and the next thing you know, you're surrounded by E.M.T.'s." The rumors are moving through the park: don't buy from so-and-so; the blue bags are bad; the clear bags are bad. Some say the brown powder is the deadly stuff. Some say the gray. "There's a lot of concern with people asking what stamps people are dying from and where they're copping," said a sinewy man named Travis, who is 30. "I was told that one of the bad stamps was XXX - like the Vin Diesel movie." The uncertainty has led to addict speculation - anything to minimize the risks. "There's ways to be smart about taking chances," said a dreadlocked girl named Shannon, 24. First of all, she said, don't buy from strangers. And take a half-dose at first, not a whole. "You can always do more, but you can't do less." Skywalker, in his dingy woolen cap, suggested having someone else try the batch first. It was noted that the kings of old once did that sort of thing. He smiled to himself and laughed. Eddie's way has been to just stay drunk the last few days - after all, no heroin, no worry. Eddie is young but will not say how young. He's been around, though. He had "a 10-year San Francisco habit," he said. Then the man from the outreach center came by. His name was Van Asher and he had a pretty dog. He started telling people not to drink on heroin, since alcohol and dope were both depressants that slowed the heart. "If you're drinking and doing opiates," he said, "do the opiates first because, with them, there's no quality control." It has upset Mr. Asher that "all the sudden, everybody's talking about killer dope, when I know several people who've died at roughly the same time who apparently were not newsworthy because of their compromised life situations." He mentioned a man named Face, who, he said, was brain dead from an overdose last week. Then he mentioned Christopher Korkowski, 24, a hairdresser found dead last Wednesday in his apartment on Avenue B. Mr. Korkowski was never mentioned by the papers, Mr. Asher said, until "two attractive college students" died. "Then he became a footnote." Of course, it all makes sense to Raumy, a 20-year-old man who is something of the resident philosopher. Raumy takes no drugs, he said - - in fact, he said, he does not even drink. His job, according to him, is to act as the designated baby sitter for all of his addict friends. "A junkie's looked down upon as a waste of skin and a Social Security number," Raumy said, waxing philosophical again. "The funny thing is, there's no such thing as a bad batch. It's all bad. Eventually, you're still going to die." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake