Source: Dallas Morning News Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com Pubdate: Sun, 5 Oct 1997 [This article received top billing on the front page of the 10597 Dallas Morning News.] Heroin's grip extends beyond the inner city By Linda Stewart Ball and Ed Timms / The Dallas Morning News PLANO Junkies used heroin in the inner city. Suburbia seemed a haven from crime and violence. But that illusion and stereotype began to crumble in Plano on New Year's Eve, when Adam Wade Goforth, a 19yearold Marine, died of a heroin overdose while he was visiting his folks for the holidays. Since then, heroin has claimed at least seven other lives in Plano. Most were teenagers or young adults. Plano is far from alone. The rash of heroinrelated deaths is symptomatic of suburbs across the nation. Traffickers, especially Colombian cartels, see the suburbs as promising markets because they are affluent, the users are naive and the police often don't have much experience fighting drugs. "They are looking for new clientele," said Julio Mercado, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Dallasarea office. "They're pushing it on the youth, the teenagers. They're marketing now to the suburbs." Although heroin is newer to the suburbs, it's an old adversary for police and drug counselors working in the inner city. Its use is rising there, too. The increase in heroin use has prompted some police and community groups to shift their priorities. Plano police have created a task force, schools have hired drug counselors, and preachers are starting to talk about the evils of heroin from the pulpit. "I've been medical examiner here 10 1/2 years, and I didn't have one heroin death out of Plano until Dec. 31, 1996," said Collin County medical examiner William Rohr. Dr. Larry Alexander, an emergency room physician at Columbia Medical Center in Plano, said it's not uncommon for him to revive three or four heroin overdose victims during a 12hour shift on the weekend. "It's become such a prevalent thing that most of the time now when we find a young person unconscious, we're thinking it's probably heroin, whereas we used to first think it was from some kind of trauma," Dr. Alexander said. Plano East High School graduate Rob Hill, 18, was Plano's latest reported heroin casualty. He died in his bedroom after a party in Dallas on Aug. 20. "I wish it would stop," Dr. Rohr said. "It's alarming. ... We've had people sporadically in Dallas, Frisco, some in Allen, but nothing in Plano. Plano had been spared." Some youths who are already inclined to experiment with illegal drugs, such as marijuana or cocaine, say they aren't about to pass up a free heroin high. "I was kind of scared of the needle, but I did it anyway," said Plano resident Nathan Hagens, 17, a selfdescribed former heroin user. "I couldn't really tell you why. I really don't know. Maybe because I wanted to have fun and get screwed up. I'm a teenager, and teenagers want to party." Nathan's parents took him out of Plano schools this fall and enrolled him in the McKinney district. They moved there in part to help him get a fresh start. Nathan has been clean for about three months. He spent his summer vacation in a rehabilitation program in Houston because, he said, he didn't want to die. "Parents are in denial," said Nathan's stepfather, Tiry Williams. "School districts are in denial. ... I'm just scared." The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse released in August reported "an increasing trend in new heroin use since 1992" and said the rate of new heroin use for 12 to 17yearolds has reached "historic levels." In the Orlando, Fla., area, 30 heroin deaths were reported in 1996. That was almost double the number in 1995. Teenagers accounted for 16 percent of the Orlandoarea deaths in 1996, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Stacey Hall, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said many of the victims were from Orlando's suburbs. And a recent report by the federal Community Epidemiology Work Group, a network of researchers, said that in Boston, heroin "has recently appeared in more affluent middleclass and upperclass suburban communities." The report also said that "police report continuing increases in white suburban users coming into Newark (N.J.) to buy heroin." The report cited "a surge in young heroin clients (age 2030) in suburban and smaller communities." New users in Philadelphia were described as being "more likely to be white, male or female, and age 1418 or 19." Five kilos of Colombian heroin have been seized at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport since the beginning of the year. Dallas County does not keep statistics about heroin deaths, and figures for the state of Texas were not available. "This is the first Colombian heroin that we've seen in the metroplex," said DEA Agent Paul Villaescusa. Law enforcement officials suspect that Colombian traffickers may be behind much of the recent increase. DEA seizures of South American heroin primarily Colombian grew from insignificant levels in 1991 to 32 percent in 1994 to 62 percent in 1995. Law enforcement officials say the traffickers have applied many common business techniques to their heroin trade: They conducted market analyses to identify lucrative new territories, improved the quality of their product and lowered the price, and looked for markets where the risk potential was lower. Those markets, officials say, are often in the suburbs, where police had little experience with largescale trafficking operations. "The average purity in the United States used to be 3 to 7 percent," said DEA Agent Mercado. "There's places where you can buy heroin right now, on a street corner, at anywhere from 60 to 90 percent." Agent Mercado said traffickers are offering another inducement to get new customers. "They're giving it [heroin] for free until they get them hooked," he said. In some communities, traffickers tell new users that heroin is neither addictive nor dangerous to use. "They're selling it to yuppies in a club setting, and they're telling them things like, 'If you snort it, it's not addictive,' which is totally untrue," said Jane Maxwell, chief of research for the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Police officials say that snorting heroin removes some of the old stigma associated with needles. They contend that heroin also has been glamorized by Hollywood and for a time by the fashion industry, which promoted models with a gaunt, darkeyed "heroin chic" look. Ms. Hall of Florida said that heroin is often being mixed with alcohol and cocaine and other drugs. "A lot of kids . . . have the perception that as long as you're not shooting it in your veins, it's not going to hurt you, that it's not that bad," she said. "They're so wrong." In some communities, traffickers don't use the word "heroin" when they're pushing it. In Plano, it's sometimes called "chiva" heroin mixed with an overthecounter antihistamine. Users are "not making the connection that chiva is heroin," said Rick Hooker, coordinator of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program for the Plano school system. "They're playing with dying, and that's the scary part. It's almost like Russian roulette with a chemical." Teenagers and young adults, especially, are at risk. "We have a new generation that didn't learn the lessons their parents learned, that heroin kills. ... " Ms. Maxwell said. "And unfortunately, they're learning the hard way." The impact of cheap, highquality heroin is not being felt just in the suburbs. Dallas police Sgt. Kenneth LeCesne said the purity of heroin is up and that the price is down in the inner city, as well. Neither the Dallas County medical examiner's office nor the state of Texas keeps statistics on the specific drugs responsible for overdose deaths. Sgt. LeCesne, who is assigned to the narcotics division, estimates that there are 24 to 30 heroinrelated deaths every year in Dallas County. A toxicologist for the medical examiner's office said he is detecting heroin in more individuals, regardless of the cause of death. Carolyn Harper works with substance abusers in Dallas. In the past three to five years, she's seen more abusers using a combination of cocaine and heroin and more "heroin houses" opening up. The heroin is used to ease the "down" of a cocaine high. Ms. Harper said it's a longstanding problem in poorer minority neighborhoods, but one that hasn't gotten the attention that the suburban heroin deaths receive. "Being in the southern sector of Dallas ... we're used to that, of the focus not being in the AfricanAmerican and Hispanic communities as much as it is in the affluent suburbs," said Ms. Harper, program director of Welcome House, which provides services to substance abusers and individuals who are HIVpositive. "It's sad, but that's the way it is." Many Plano residents acknowledge that they had a false sense of security. "From the outside, Plano looks real nice and like an ideal place to live. ... But we weren't really aware of what was happening to the kids on the inside," said Steve Ransom, who recently placed his 18yearold stepson in a Christianbased residential treatment program in East Texas. "When you hear about the drugs, you automatically think of crack in South Dallas," he said. "To hear how widespread this drug is in Plano is mindboggling. ... And then to turn around and find this type of thing at your doorstep or at your house, it's really scary. ... It's just devastating."