SUBURBAN HEROIN USE ON THE RISE

A New Jersey study suggests heroin, a longtime scourge of America's inner
cities, is becoming a suburban and rural problem.

The number of city-dwelling heroin users treated each year in the state
dropped by half during the 1990s, while the number treated from suburban
and rural areas nearly tripled, the government reported Thursday.

Analysts said people in outlying areas may be less aware than city dwellers
of other diseases linked to heroin use, such as AIDS and hepatitis.

"It's less of a personal experience for them," said Dr. Anna Kline, a
researcher at the New Jersey Health Department. "They haven't seen their
relatives and friends dying of AIDS."

New Jersey addiction centers treated 1,817 suburban and rural heroin users
in 1999, up from 691 in 1993. Over the same period, the number of urban
users treated annually dropped from 2,018 to 1,076.

The study also suggested a new generation of heroin users may prefer
injecting the drug to snorting it, exposing themselves to bloodborne diseases.

Nearly half of the 18- to 25-year-old heroin users treated in New Jersey in
1999 reported injecting the drug, up from 22percent in 1993. Most of the
young addicts were injecting high-purity heroin. Traditionally, purer
heroin is snorted, not injected.