TEEN HEROIN USE RISING ON NW SIDE

Sales To High School Students Alarm OV Police

In pursuing low-level drug users, Oro Valley police officers noticed
an alarming trend: more and more of the addicts they encountered were
teens and young adults hooked on heroin.

The "teenage phenomenon" of heroin use in Pima County seems mostly
confined to the north and northwest areas, said Anthony Coulson, the
Drug Enforcement Administration assistant special agent in charge of
the Tucson District Office.

Young users, mostly from families who are well-off, may think of
heroin as being less insidious than methamphetamine or cocaine, he
said.

"They perceive that there's less risk and less harm," he said. "It's
not accurate at all."

A dramatic increase in the amount of heroin - including the cheaper
black tar - coming into Arizona from Mexico also makes the drug more
accessible, he said.

Earlier this month, U.S. customs agents at the Nogales border crossing
made a record seizure: 24 packages of heroin weighing 47 pounds hidden
in a Volkswagen Jetta. "There is a lot of heroin abuse going on,"
said Sgt. Mike McBride of the Oro Valley Police Department.

McBride leads the department's Community Action Team, which in the
last 18 months has arrested or come in contact with numerous young
addicts.

At least three teens from in and around Oro Valley have died of fatal
overdoses in the past 18 months, the sergeant said. Young people
primarily are smoking heroin, McBride said. But some as young as 15
also are injecting the drug intravenously.

Many of the youths snared in Oro Valley investigations outside school
hours went on heroin after abusing OxyContin, a prescription pain
reliever found in many medicine cabinets, McBride said. Rampant heroin
use among young people is something he hadn't seen in his 19 years of
police work, including investigations with the DEA, McBride said.

"When it came to heroin, it was all adults - that's why we're shaking
our heads," he said.

On Wednesday, two men involved in a trafficking organization police
say sold heroin in Oro Valley were busted by McBride and his squad.
Last week's bust brought the number of felony arrests in drug cases
linked to high-school-age youths to 22 since January.

Detectives say they seized 7.1 grams of heroin from Rene Ramon
Alvarez-Mercado, 23, and Jose Granados, 42, who face drug-related
charges in the Oro Valley case. In mid-May, another drug bust yielded
23 grams of heroin that Oro Valley police believed was meant for
youthful addicts.

While McBride and his squad deal with the bottom-end buyers and
dealers, they work closely with the DEA when young people are involved.

The federal agency usually asks Oro Valley or another local
jurisdiction to intervene in an attempt to remove minors - both users
and sellers - from the agency's higher-level investigations, said the
DEA's Coulson.

"We immediately are going to do some type of intervention with that
juvenile because that's a priority for us," he said.

Workers at drug-rehabilitation centers are seeing younger patients
struggling with heroin addiction.

At Tucson Valley Hope, an outpatient intensive-treatment program on
West Ina Road, staffers also are hearing more from parents who suspect
their children could be using the drug, said Joan Lisa a
substance-abuse counselor.

As with most drug addictions, Lisa said those who adhere to a
treatment program have the best chance of recovery.

"It takes a lot of work, but if somebody is coming in for treatment,
they're going to meetings, Narcotics Anonymous meetings, they're
getting a sponsor, they have the support of their family, support of
friends, someone can do it."

At 20, Zach Wilder can attest to the highly addictive nature of
heroin. He started using it when he was about 17 and attending
Ironwood Ridge High School.

He has been in and out of rehab since he graduated in May 2006. But
after spending a month behind bars recently for a probation violation
related to a heroin paraphernalia charge, Wilder said he is ready to
quit the drug for good.

"Being locked up in jail and realizing what I got left for me if I
keep using - I'm just going to be like everyone else and end up
passing away or living on the streets for the rest of my life," he
said at the Northwest Side hotel where he's staying. "That's not what
I want."

Wilder first experimented with marijuana at 15, then moved on to
OxyContin at 16, he said.

"I hung out with an older crowd, so I started using harder drugs. . I
didn't realize the addiction that was behind it. I was just young and
having fun. And I got caught up."

He switched to heroin when OxyContin became more expensive and
difficult to get, he said. The $25 he initially paid for a single pill
went up to $40 in a matter of months.

At $40 a gram, heroin was "way cheaper and easier to find," Wilder
said. When money was scarce, Wilder said he could always buy $20 worth
of the drug.

"I started out just doing it a couple days, here and there, and then I
started playing with needles and then I started shooting up heroin and
it's just downhill from there."

Two of his close friends died of heroin and OxyContin overdoses, which
made Wilder turn to heroin even more.

He soon was so addicted that no heroin high meant falling into a deep
depression and experiencing nausea, excruciating body aches and cold
flashes.

Still, all Wilder said he could think about was getting his next
fix.

"It's nothing like other drugs. It's horrible, once you're addicted
there's no turning back. It gets you with the best grip ever and it
sucks the life out of you."

He became isolated and dropped out of school for some time. His
relationship with his family fell apart.

"I started doing things to get drugs that I'd never do, like stealing
from people and selling possessions, like electronics or anything that
I could get money for," Wilder said. By then, he had a $200-a-day
heroin habit.

His mother, Lisa Patrick, said her son's drug abuse came as a shock
when she first learned about it.

She became suspicious after Wilder started losing weight fast and
wearing long sleeves in summer to hide needle marks on his arms.

As her son's heroin drug use escalated, it wreaked havoc at home and
tore apart Wilder's once-close relationship with his two brothers.

"It's not a drug that can be taken lightly at all," Patrick said of
heroin. "Consequences are serious financially, emotionally and
mentally. It's a scary, scary drug."

As her son prepares to go into court-ordered treatment, endure random
drug testing for a year, and face multiple check fraud charges, Wilder
said he will work to stay clean. He does not expect it will be easy.

"It's really hard to get away from once you start," he said of heroin.
"So you're better off just staying away from it."