NEIGHBORHOOD'S DRUG TRAFFIC EASES

No One Knows Where Addicts Went After Raid

When the sun set each day, Joe Watson would see traffic flow past his
America Street home as if a hurricane evacuation were under way. In
battered sedans to sleek Mercedes, people would prowl the streets for
heroin and other drugs to feed their habits. On an average night, Watson
might see 100 people pass through the flourishing open air drug market.

"We would see so many cars you would think we were living on a major
thoroughfare," said Watson, 51. "You would see people from a wide range,
from those who have great wealth to those who have little or nothing to
start off with."

The traffic has slowed to a trickle since a massive police crackdown on May
1. Authorities say they dealt a crushing blow to a drug ring responsible
for $13 million in heroin sales on the East Side over the past two years.

But with the city's chief source of heroin supposedly gone, what has become
of the dozens of users and addicts who made a daily pilgrimage there to get
their fix?

"There's no doubt in my mind," said Special Agent James Capallo, head of
the Drug Enforcement Administration's efforts in South Carolina. "You take
the product off the street and unfortunately they'll end up in the
methadone maintenance programs."

Two area hospitals have treated a few people for heroin withdrawal.

And the Lowcountry's two main treatment centers for heroin addiction have
seen some increase in clients. But none of these facilities have been
swamped with the number of addicts some might expect.

According to federal court documents, the drug ring was selling as much as
400 single doses of heroin every day in the America Street area.

The average addict uses one to four doses daily, which suggests more than

100 people depended on the East Side for their heroin every day, according
to drug treatment experts.

Lt. Richard Vance, head of the Charleston police narcotics unit, said the
consumers have all but disappeared from the East Side. During undercover
stings last week, officers had difficulty rounding up either drug dealers
or users. It took three days for police to make two arrests, and those were
for crack cocaine charges, he said.

"For heroin, the demand was pretty strong before, but it just doesn't seem
to be there now," he said.

Some addicts may be holed up, fighting withdrawal on their own or staving
off their cravings with other opiate-based drugs. Others may have moved on
to other cities where the heroin supply is more plentiful. But another
theory is that heroin is still available in the area if you know where to
find it.

Rebecca Hassell, a director of the region's only private methadone clinic,
hasn't seen a rush of people seeking treatment. A few have complained about
a dwindling heroin supply, but the clinic still averages one to six new
people a week.

"I haven't heard a large number of people say there is no heroin in town,"
said Hassell, director of treatment for the Center for Behavioral Health in
North Charleston.

Charleston Center, a county-run substance abuse program, saw calls for help
from heroin users double from about four to eight a week immediately after
the raid. Several users cited the supply drought. However, that "spike" in
calls has since tapered off, said Mark Cowell, center director.

Dr. Robert Malcolm, who oversees substance treatment programs at Medical
University Hospital, said three people sought help with heroin withdrawal
the day after the raid, but no one has come in since.

"That would suggest people have maybe switched to out-of-town sources or
maybe have new in-town sources," he said.

It is difficult to believe area heroin addicts simply stopped using when
the supply dried up. Addicts dread withdrawal, which is often accompanied
by intense drug cravings, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, tremors, and
vomiting. The major symptoms generally peak between 48 and 72 hours after
the last dose and subside after about a week.

"They may not be dying when they are withdrawing, but sometimes they wish
they were," Hassell said.

MUH and Charleston Memorial Hospital are the only area hospitals to report
seeing anyone suffering from heroin withdrawal. Dr. Fran Tunney, an
emergency room physician at both hospitals, said he has seen a few addicts
come in for help since the raid.

"It is very unusual to see heroin addicts coming in with withdrawal
symptoms unless they are under arrest," he said.

Still, MUH's Malcolm said he suspects the raid, like the larger "war on
drugs," will do little to reduce the long-term availability of narcotics
without more treatment and prevention efforts to cut the demand.

"I don't believe you can control the supply very well," he said. "This is
an experiment we have done for 30 years now in this country and drugs are
cheaper, more available, and more potent than at any other time."

Despite the government's best efforts, heroin use is a growing problem in
the United States, with an estimated 149,000 new users in 1998 alone,
according to a U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy. Of the six
metric tons of heroin produced in Colombia that year, nearly all was
thought to be destined for the U.S. market, the agency reported.

J. Mitchell Miller, a professor at the University of South Carolina's
College of Criminal Justice, said heroin's appeal runs the social gamut.

"Unlike methamphetamine, which has a user base that is usually in a lower
socioeconomic class, heroin is seen as a trendy yuppie drug that is being
consumed by the same groups that are experimenting with designer drugs," he
said.

Miller, editor of the quarterly Journal of Crime and Justice, participated
in a study two years ago that reviewed the arrests made by drug task forces
throughout South Carolina. Among other things, the study found heroin
violations were more concentrated in the Lowcountry than the rest of the
state. He found that odd, since the region is not along major interstate
transport routes, he said.

Hassell, of the Center for Behavioral Health, said in other areas of the
state, the majority of people seeking help at treatment centers have
problems with prescription drug addictions.

"That's the minority here. The majority here are heroin addicts," she said.

Some experts blame the highly addictive properties of the nearly pure
heroin sold here. Others see more people trying heroin with the mistaken
notion that smoking or snorting the drug makes it less addictive.

"It's a significant problem in Charleston County," said Cowell, of
Charleston Center. "The fact that we have two methadone maintenance
clinics, public and private, testifies to that."

Charleston Center and the Center for Behavioral Health each provide
assistance to about 200 addicts each year. Both offer programs that use
methadone, a synthetic narcotic, to control the negative effects of opiate
dependence.

Cowell said the community would probably be surprised to learn many in the
methadone program have families, good jobs and swing by on their way to
work to get their daily dose. Watson, of America Street, wouldn't be
surprised. He has seen plenty of suburban teenagers and well-heeled
citizens trawling for drugs along America Street, he said.

"Heroin knows no races or economic barriers," said Capallo of the DEA.

"It's all over the place in today's society."

Investigators say the local dealers commuted to the Eastside from homes in
North Charleston and West Ashley. Their patrons came from throughout
Charleston and Mount Pleasant, they said.

The brazen manner in which the ring operated drew the attention of the U.S.
Attorney's Violent Crime Task Force, which launched an 18-month
investigation. The probe, dubbed "Operation Mayday," involved 11 different
law enforcement agencies. The end result was the May 1 raid.

Authorities now have 47 people in custody as a result of the raid, and 13
more are being sought on federal drug charges. The latest arrest was Rodney
"Little Rod" Moultrie, 28, of Charleston, on Tuesday, said Mary Gordon
Baker, 1st assistant U.S. attorney for the district of South Carolina.

Capallo said authorities put a "big dent" in the heroin trade with the
raid. Among those indicted were four suppliers who procured heroin directly
from drug importers in New York City, authorities have said.

"If there is heroin out there, we are not aware of it," he said.

Glenn Smith covers police and crime.