HEROIN IS MAKING COMEBACK IN NH

Heroin — in a powerful and sometimes deadly form — is making a slow but
insidious comeback in select communities across New Hampshire, law
enforcement officials said.

"Heroin is certainly on the rise on the Seacoast, in northern Strafford
County and southern Carroll County," according to Trooper Bruce Twyon of the
New Hampshire State Police Narcotics Investigations Unit.

In the six months that Operation Lifesaver, which was made public yesterday,
was going on, other major busts have helped focus the spotlight on the
increased use and potency of heroin.

Last August, a Lawrence, Mass., man was arrested in Seabrook after he
allegedly sold 500 bags of heroin to undercover officers. In September, two
Manchester men were arrested and charged with selling 46 bags of heroin and
being in possession of another 109 bags.

A bag of heroin, Twyon said, holds about a tenth of an ounce and costs
between $7 and $10.

"For comparison sake, a marijuana cigarette would weigh between a quarter to
a half a gram depending on how it is rolled," he said. "It would take five
bags of heroin, in weight, to equal that."

On the other hand, heroin is probably five times more potent than marijuana.
Ten years ago, officials said, heroin tested about 5 percent pure. Today,
laboratories are reporting upwards of 90 percent purity.

"It’s cheap, it’s an intense high and it’s hugely addictive," he said. "It
does a number on your body, internally and psychologically."

Twyon said he has seen informants who have admitted to spending tens of
thousands of dollars over a two-year period just to support their habits.

"Some people are spending several hundred dollars a day," he said. Some
support their habits by dealing the narcotic drug themselves. Others turn to
different forms of crime.

"They are stealing from their neighbors, their friends, their families. They
are getting kicked out of their houses, their friends stop speaking to
them," he said.

There are greater incidences of violence and burglaries when heroin is the
issue, Twyon said.

"Crack cocaine is running a close second, but heroin leads to even more
problems," he said.

Heroin, according to Twyon, has been a problem in the Hampton area for
several years, especially in the winter, when the cost of rental property
plunges along with the temperatures.

"Hampton has a few overdoses each year," Twyon said. "Dover just had one
recently."

The trouble with heroin can be its purity, depending on who the dealer is.

"The potency will vary because it depends on where it came from and who made
the mix."

Bags are labeled, stamped with certain names or characters or symbols so the
buyer knows where the product is coming from.

"People really get in trouble when they can’t get a fix from their regular
dealer and use another source," Twyon said. "A 20-bag-a-day habit under
X-blend might be fatal from another source."

The rise of AIDS and the spread of hepatitis curtailed the use of needles as
a means to get heroin into the bloodstream at one time. As potency levels
rose, Twyon said, users began snorting heroin instead.

But the tide seems to be turning again, as Twyon pointed to the large number
of thefts of hypodermic needles from emergency rooms in Massachusetts border
towns, including Lawrence.

And it is Lawrence, according to those who work in the drug-war trenches,
that remains the central focal point for drug distribution, whether it be
cocaine or heroin.

Billy Yout, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration
office for New Hampshire, said last week he knows of people who make the
two-hour drive from Burlington, Vt., to Lawrence, just to pick up a day’s
worth of heroin.

The users, Twyon said, come from all across the board.

"They are probably lower-middle to lower class," he said, "because it’s so
cheap and the high is so intense.

"They quickly adapt to the potency and then need more and more. By the time
other people get involved, family and police, it’s very late in the
process."

Nonetheless, Twyon said there have been success stories.

"There have been several users who have come full circle and become
productive in their lives. I think a heroin user has to hit rock bottom
before that happens, though."