DRUG USE ON RISE, REPORT REVEALS

Heroin deaths quadruple locally over past year

The number of heroin deaths in Broward County has quadrupled over the past
year, and most juveniles younger than 18 arrested tested positive for
marijuana in 1999, according to a report from the Broward County Commission
on Substance Abuse.

The report -- the first formal analysis of its kind in Broward -- documents
cocaine, heroin, marijuana, GHB, ecstasy and LSD abuse in 1999. The
information came from 35,000 medical charts and 6,000 toxicology screenings
at two Broward drug treatment centers, Spectrum and the Broward Addiction
Recovery Center.

"What the report really does is it lays out what the problem is," said
David Choate, commission director. He believes a drop in national concern
about drug abuse over the past 10 years accounts for increases in children
using illicit drugs.

"The problem is still here, and it's not going away," Choate said.

According to the report, cocaine remains a major problem in Broward.
Cocaine caused 47 deaths in 1999. From 1997 to 1999, there was a 15 percent
increase in the number of deaths that involved cocaine.

Heroin-induced deaths have skyrocketed since 1995, the report shows. There
were nine in 1995 and 40 in 1999.

Broward is unique in that most deaths were middle-aged men, compared to the
rest, where most of the deaths were younger people.

The report also said that use of ecstasy and GHB -- drugs often used in
clubs and at raves -- has increased in Broward, following a national trend.

At Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, "there have been 48
GHB overdoses in 1999 and three withdrawal cases," said pharmacist Joe
Spillane, who helped compile the data. "That's one a week. For a drug
that's virtually brand new, that's a lot."

Along with an increase in GHB, there has been a rise in South Florida
rapes, said Jim Hall of Up Front Drug Information in Miami. GHB, a central
nervous system depressant, is sometimes used by rapists to sedate victims,
who often don't remember what happened to them.

"GHB has dramatically increased drug rape in general," Hall said. "Rape has
become part of the rave and club cultures."

Choate said he hopes the report will prompt parents to talk frequently with
their children about drug abuse.

"This is not like the sex talk, where you have one talk about it and that's
it," he said. Instead, parents and their children should have an ongoing
dialogue, he said.

Drug use in young people is a strong indicator of future problems with
drugs and possibly crime, Choate said.

"Beginning that early in life, there is no way that kid is not going to
have a problem later on," he said.

Annual reports such as the one just released will help the Commission on
Substance Abuse dole out $1.8 million in federal and local funds to 24
Broward drug prevention and treatment programs, Choate said. The report
will help the commission set priorities and target problems with particular
drugs, Choate said. The report also alerts policymakers and parents to
Broward's growing illicit drug problem, he said.