Crack, Marijuana Still Lead Penn Hills Usage

Heroin. The drug's name conjures up images of dimly lit apartments littered with empty syringes, little packets of white powder and junkies, wide-eyed and desperate for their next fix. But perhaps heroin should make people picture nice, suburban houses, replete with picket fences and two-car garages.

Heroin increasingly is invading suburban neighborhoods around Pittsburgh and nationwide.

Last year, 80 people died of heroin overdoses in Allegheny County - including one Penn Hills resident. And in 2001, Penn Hills police charged five people with heroin possession.

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