Pubdate: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 Source: Eagle-Tribune, The (MA) Copyright: 2005 The Eagle-Tribune Contact: http://www.eagletribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/129 Author: Julie Kirkwood Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) LOCAL HEROIN USE CALLED 'FRIGHTENING' Local heroin use called 'frightening' Some of the cheapest and most debilitating heroin in the nation is flowing through Andover and other upscale suburban communities as well as urban Lawrence, causing a frightening change in drug use locally, police officials report. Today's drug addicts no longer fit the stereotype of down-and-outers, people living on the ugly side of life, said Andover police Chief Brian Pattullo. The problem, he added, has spread to some of the best homes and families in the region. "The biggest worry is heroin and the addiction," Pattullo told a drug-prevention forum in Lawrence yesterday. "We have professionals (in business and other fields) that we've arrested that you wouldn't even know used drugs." The six-hour forum, broadcast live by WCCM Radio in Methuen, featured police chiefs, school officials, neighborhood activists, outreach workers and politicians from across the Merrimack Valley. All described the toll drug addiction is taking on the local scene. They spoke of the difficulty of preventing and treating drug abuse as well as the signs of hope. "Now, as opposed to when I was first beginning, you've got more people in the neighborhoods coming forward (to help with investigations)," said Lt. Michael Wnek of the Methuen Police Department. The forum was the first time the radio station had ever devoted six hours to one topic, said host Bruce Arnold. He said he was inspired to do the broadcast after a drug forum at Salem, Mass., High School last month drew about 1,200 people, just days after The Eagle-Tribune ran a series on the casual use of OxyContin and heroin among young suburbanites. He was also captivated by the story of Jeff Allison, the Peabody baseball star who nearly died of a heroin overdose last summer, a year after being drafted by the Florida Marlins and receiving a million-dollar bonus. "Thirty-three years ago we did a five-hour broadcast dealing with drugs," Arnold said. "It has gotten worse over 33 years. It's not any better." Police chiefs from Andover, Lawrence and North Andover and officers from Haverhill and Methuen described the extent of the problem locally. They said many young people and adults are smoking or sniffing heroin instead of taking the drug intravenously. OxyContin, the prescription pain-killer, is similar to heroin in effect and is readily available to young people, said Sgt. John Arahovites of the Haverhill Police Department. Kids may sneak pills from their parents' medicine cabinet at home or buy it on the street for about $80 per 80-milligram tablet. Teens often start with OxyContin but then move to heroin, which is much cheaper and pure enough now that it can be snorted rather than injected. Heroin, the police officials said, sells for about $4 per packet. "It's very inexpensive, very potent and very strong," said Lawrence police Chief John J. Romero. "Right now, I know for Lawrence, it's the biggest problem we're up against." It's not only the cheap supply that makes the Merrimack Valley a regional destination for drug deals. It is also our location right off Interstates 495 and 93, the police officials said. Drug dealers drive down from Southern New Hampshire and Maine to buy heroin to resell in their home communities, Arahovites said. "We're having a serious problem in Haverhill with heroin," he said. Drug deals may not happen openly on Broadway in Lawrence as they did six years ago, Romero said, but they still happen. Now a deal takes 15 seconds and you might not even notice it. At the end of the forum, Arnold and his co-host Marc Lemay identified a few themes that had emerged from the day's discussion: a lack of funding for drug prevention and treatment programs and a need for parents to get involved in their children's lives. "This has been educational and hopefully eye opening to the people who have been listening and attending here today," Lemay said as he wrapped up the live broadcast at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence. The hosts said they hoped the forum would lead to more discussions on drug abuse, and perhaps eventually a solution. Gloria Schwarz, a neighborhood activist in Lawrence, said she is already planning to take the next step. She plans to set up drug education programs at her local schools for students and parents. "It's just the fear that the parents are not going to respond to it," she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek