SUBURBAN RAID BRINGS ATTENTION TO DRUG'S DANGERS

A drug raid in Oakland County last weekend sounded an overdue alarm on heroin.

Police confiscated one-third of a kilo of heroin and 115 grams of marijuana
in Farmington Hills, underscoring what authorities said is a shift from
crack cocaine use to heroin. On the street, the shift in drug of choice has
gone on for years.

Across Michigan, admissions to state-funded treatment programs for heroin
jumped 50 percent in the late 1990s. Heroin-related deaths have more than
doubled in Wayne County over the last six years. In one Detroit detox
center, about half of those treated are heroin addicts.

As the heroin supply from Colombia to Michigan increases, the drug is
becoming more pure, more addictive, more dangerous. Heroin sold in metro
Detroit now is five times as pure as that sold in the 1980s.

Heroin users describe the drug as a warm blanket. But it's really a killer
and a thief, robbing addicts of possessions, self-respect, friends,
potential and, sometimes, life itself.

In the age of AIDS, heroin is doubly dangerous because addicts often end up
mainlining -- injecting the drug directly into a vein with a needle. Nearly
one-third of Michigan's AIDS cases are transmitted through intravenous drug
use -- mostly heroin. To an addict in need of a fix, no needle is too dirty.

It's unfortunate that a social problem has to move from the city to the
suburbs, where most of the increased heroin use is, to get the proper
attention. The fight against heroin must include education, treatment and
enforcement.

Addiction affects more than the addict: prison populations, treatment
programs, crime and insurance rates all come under the influence. The cost
of addiction is high and everyone pays.