SEEKING JUSTICE IN TRAGEDY'S WAKE

Amid Concern Over Fatal Overdoses, New Police Unit Probes All Deaths
In Hunt For Drug Source

The call came in as an anonymous tip to the Suffolk Police
Department's narcotics squad one February day in 2005. A woman who
identified herself only as a mother who had lost a son to an overdose
told the detective she knew who had been selling him drugs.

She wanted the dealer arrested.

In the past, her son's death probably would have been investigated
only by homicide detectives, to confirm he wasn't the victim of a
crime. Then it would be logged as another accidental OD. This time was
different. Narcotics detectives used the details she provided and
worked backward. Within days they confirmed the suspect was a drug
dealer and although they never connected him to the woman's son, they
arrested him on three counts of criminal sale of controlled substance
- in this case, police say, cocaine.

The case prompted more than an arrest, though. It led to the start of
a team of cops that now investigates every overdose in the county - an
alarming number of them and many among young people.

In each year from 2003 through 2005, Suffolk cops have investigated
more than 200 deaths with a suspected drug link. And in the last two
years, both Nassau and Suffolk authorities say there has been a rise
in confirmed fatal drug overdoses. The fatalities, fueled in part by a
growing availability of opiates such as heroin, has strained a
shrinking number of hospital detoxification centers and the resources
of law enforcement and rehabilitation specialists alike.

"Nobody tells you about the overdose deaths," said Det. Lt. William
Burke, commanding officer of the narcotics squad. "Families don't want
you to know. The public doesn't become aware of it."

Suffolk cops, in an effort to change that, now assign narcotics
detectives from the new squad to investigate every fatal overdose. Two
are assigned full time to the squad, and others are brought in as
needed. The goal, Burke said, is to find the source.

"My hope is that the team will have some influence in reducing the
overdose deaths and drug trafficking in general," he said.

Burke said his detectives are seeing more people in their 20s using
heroin, which is affordable at $5 to $20 per hit.

"That's the scary part," Burke said. "In my own experience, years ago
when I was a police officer on patrol, [when there was] a heroin
death, I thought of the 40-year-old male who was a heroin junkie all
his life.

"Today my detectives are seeing far too many people in their
20s."

Detoxification and rehab centers across Long Island say they are
facing an increasing demand for their facilities, at the same time
there are fewer hospital detox beds available.

"I would say that in the last five years we've seen a sharp increase
in opiate users and heroin," said Claire Olsen, who oversees the
40-bed drug rehabilitation program at St. Charles Hospital in Port
Jefferson. "The patients we're seeing are younger, they're getting
addicted quicker, and the drugs they are using are more pure."

Olsen said her staff is scrambling harder than usual to find
appropriate care for the sickest patients, especially with the
conversion of 22 beds at other facilities to cardiac care.

Those Who Fall Victim

Another overdose victim was in his early 20s, had graduated from a
high quality Long Island public school, played on sports teams and was
part of a close-knit middle-class family. But none of that prevented
him from experimenting with drugs, becoming addicted to heroin, and
then dying of an overdose.

"My son did not have a death wish," said his grieving mother, who
asked that their names and hometown not be used to protect the
family's identity. "He got stuck on this and couldn't get out of it."

In his parents' mind, there was nothing they didn't offer or encourage
to push their son down a different track. He was a good-humored young
man, "talented in everything he touched," his mother said.

In high school, though, they started noticing subtle changes. He
became less outgoing and kept more to himself.

"A part of me didn't want to believe what was going on," his mother
said.

In her son's school district and others, she said, there was a general
perception that drug use didn't exist. Yet it was at school where she
believes her son was first exposed. Several studies reflect her concern.

In New York, 48.4 percent of seniors interviewed for a statewide
survey said they had tried marijuana within the last year. Fifty-five
percent considered it "very easy" to get, the 2003-04 PRIDE survey
states.

A majority of seniors also considered it "fairly easy" or "very easy"
to get inhalants; and about 40 percent said the same for cocaine.

It was marijuana that the boy's parents first found. They confronted
him about it and got into arguments. After high school, his drug use
worsened. Soon, he had moved on to harder drugs, including heroin.

The parents tried calling numerous detox centers. But each one said
they couldn't admit him without his consent.

From time to time, he would go through rehab and stay clean. But the
addiction always crept back. A 2001 study by UCLA researchers
highlights how difficult the drug is to quit. Out of 581 heroin
addicts followed over the course of 33 years starting in 1964, nearly
half had died by 1997. Of those, the most common cause of death was a
drug overdose.

For the family of this young victim, the grief hasn't
ended.

"The hole is never going to go away," his father said.

The Drugs Of Choice

Locally and across the country, reports indicate that heroin and
general opiate use, including prescription drugs is on the rise - and
the face of the average user is changing.

Both Nassau and Suffolk police said they are seeing a rise in
prescription drug abuse.

"That is a big drug of choice between the younger generation," Det.
Capt. Steven Skrynecki, commanding officer of Nassau's narcotics and
vice squad.

"We used to talk a lot about all the gateway drugs, marijuana,
alcohol," agreed Olsen. "But now a lot of these kids seem to be
skipping the gateways and going straight to Vicodin."

Heroin and cocaine make up the largest number of overdose
deaths.

In 2004, according to the Suffolk medical examiner, 47 people died
from overdoses of heroin, cocaine, a mixture of both or combined with
other drugs. In 2005, that number rose to 95.

"I guarantee those numbers are higher now," Burke said of the 2005
data, explaining that it takes time to receive toxicology results.

From 2003 to 2005 in Nassau, fatal drug overdoses rose from 82 to 132
deaths, according to the Nassau County medical examiner's office.

What's more, experts and police said the heroin victims are using is
stronger than ever before. Where decades ago a bag of heroin was 1 to
10 percent pure, it now ranges from 10 to 70 percent pure, according
to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

David Vlahov of the New York Academy of Medicine and others speculated
that marketers increased purity by design. A less pure heroin produced
less of a high when smoked than when injected, Vlahov said. Curbing
fears of AIDS, increasing the purity creates a more intense high that
can be sustained when smoking or snorting.

"So now that 23-year-old who maybe never would have stuck a needle in
their arm is snorting heroin," Burke said. "And they get hooked on
it."

But when the same drug is injected, the effect is more
potent.

Tracing Drugs To Sellers

Burke, of the narcotics squad, said not all of the arrests made by the
overdose investigation team can be linked directly to the product that
was ingested at the time of the overdose. But they are related.

The exact number of arrests the team has made has not yet been
compiled.

Nassau does not have a counterpart overdose investigation unit, but
Skrynecki said finding out the source of the drugs is something
homicide detectives routinely ask his detectives for assistance in
uncovering.

"We haven't been able to link a specific individual responsible for
the sale of a narcotic to another individual who ultimately overdosed
from it," Skrynecki said. "But we pursue that more in general terms."

Peter Moskos, an assistant professor at the John Jay College of
Criminal Justice in Manhattan and a former member of the Baltimore
Police Department, said Suffolk's new team, "might be effective and
maybe they'll catch a few extra dealers," but cautioned against the
approach.

"My fear is that you're going to push it even more underground because
you're getting the police involved," he said.

Still, the investigations unit has helped the family of the second
victim feel perhaps their son's death was not in vain. "It makes me
feel like possibly somebody else is going to be a little bit safer,"
his father said.

[sidebars]

WHERE TO GET HELP

If you or someone you know needs help for drug or alcohol abuse, the
following organizations can recommend a variety of treatment options:

Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence,
516-747-2606

New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services, Long
Island field office, 631-434-7263

National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Hotline, U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 800-662-4357

Narcotics Anonymous, Greater New York area, 212-929-6262.

DEATHS ON THE RISE

Both Nassau and Suffolk authorities reported increases in
drug-related deaths from 2004 to 2005. Note: 2005 data are provisional.

NASSAU, TOTAL DRUG DEATHS

2004 92

2005 132

Deaths from

2004 2005

Opiates, morphine 24 41

Cocaine 35 60

SUFFOLK, TOTAL DRUG DEATHS

2004 114

2005 182

Deaths from

2004 2005

Mixed drugs 38 45

Cocaine/heroin 27 64

SOURCE: Medical Examiners Offices, Nassau, Suffolk Counties