THE NEW ADDICTS

Leigh was ranked at the top of her junior class in high school. She had a
part-time job at the library - something her parents thought was a good
idea to teach her the value of money. She seemed like a typical suburban
teen-ager.

And then, her parents got the call: "Your daughter's a junkie."

For Leigh, the nightmare started during her sophomore year - the first time
she used a syringe she had stolen from her grandfather, a doctor, to shoot
heroin into her veins. She was 16.

"I knew from the time I was 12 years old that I wanted to use heroin. It
was instinctual," said the 23-year-old Fairfield woman. "And when I did, it
was everything I'd hoped 8A in the beginning."

Lucinda can relate to that. She, too, was 16 the first time she snorted
heroin. She, too, had planned ahead.

She read everything she could about the drug, and had decided it was the
one for her - something to give her a sense of well-being and help her lose
weight. Her choice had nothing to do with peer pressure, said Lucinda. In
fact, her friends tried to talk her out of it.

"I knew the consequences and I knew about withdrawal. I knew that it led to
the streets, to crime, collapsed veins, disease. But I liked heroin. When I
used it, it was the first time I felt normal," the now 19-year-old Stamford
resident said.

"It just felt really good. I was relaxed 8A I could focus," she added.

For Leigh, the drug produced the good feelings she first experienced with
morphine, a drug she was given following surgery as a preteen.

Both Leigh and Lucinda - addicts being treated at separate methadone
programs in the region - were excellent students. They came from good
families in the suburbs. There were no traumas in their lives, no abuse.
Their friends didn't use heroin.

Most people would assume the stories of how they became addicted to heroin
at such a young age are unusual. But that isn't the case.

In fact, Lucinda and Leigh - both attractive young women who don't fit the
stereotypical image of drug addicts - could be poster children for a
growing segment of today's addicts.

"The trend is to see younger and younger heroin addicts. It's the chic drug
among high school and college students. It's replaced cocaine in that
sense," according to Rob Lambert, director of the Connecticut Counseling
Centers in Norwalk. "And these kids come from the more affluent suburbs."

Why heroin 8A why now?

Drug counselors say some young people have reported using the drug to help
focus on schoolwork or sports, or just because it was available at parties
and clubs and their friends were using it. But many addicts had prior
problems with depression or fitting in with peers.

Two main factors have contributed to the rising teen-age use of heroin,
drug counselors and police officials said. One is the image of the drug as
"heroin chic," often portrayed by waif-like, pallid models on magazine
covers and glamorized teen angst in music and movies. But the biggest
attraction is the increased purity of the drug, which allows users to snort
or smoke it, making it more socially acceptable and easier to use at
parties and clubs.

The increased purity also means users become addicts much more quickly,
sometimes even in the course of a long, partying weekend, according to John
Hamilton of the Liberation, Meridian & Guenster programs based in Stamford.

"The history of methadone programs was that you had to be 21 to get in,
which wasn't a problem because clients, on average, were in their 30s. But
now we're getting a lot of 18- and 19-year-olds with three- or four-year
histories of heroin use," said Lambert, whose agency also has offices in
Bridgeport and Norwalk.

As disturbing as the trend may be, drug counselors point out that alcohol,
marijuana and amphetamines are still the drugs of choice among most
preteens and teen-agers.

Still, about 80,000 12- to 17-year-olds and 303,000 18- to 25-year-olds
admitted to using heroin in 1998, according to a survey by the U.S. Office
of National Drug Policy.

Heroin hits suburbia

"People want to think the drug problem is confined to Bridgeport, but I
can't tell you the number of cases we get from the suburbs. There's more
drugs in Fairfield, Trumbull, Stratford and Easton - all areas in our
jurisdiction here - than people want to publicize," said Bargar.

It's a trend that's consumed not just Connecticut, but the nation,
according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. DEA statistics estimate
that there were about 150,000 new heroin users in 1999 and most of them
were under 25 years old. The age of users first began spiraling downward
about 1995 and the trend continues to engulf even younger people.

In 1990, the average age of someone trying heroin for the first time was
26.5 years old, according to the DEA. In 1999, the typical heroin user was
17.5 years old the first time he or she tried the drug.

And Cornell University Hospital reported in 1999 that the number of
middle-class young people seeking treatment for heroin addiction had
increased ten-fold in the past five years.

Judging from those statistics, Lucinda and Leigh closely fit the current
profile of heroin addicts.

"I'm from a good, middle-class family. I was raised right, treated well. I
don't have mental problems; I'm not a troubled child. I'm just like
everyone else, except I got into heroin," said Lucinda, who at her worst
was using 15 bags of heroin a day.

And as long as she had the drug she could function normally - go to school,
run errands, attend family functions.

Leigh, too, was raised in a good family, she said. Her family was well
educated and well off financially, yet no one noticed that she had drained
several thousand dollars from her savings account to pay for the drugs. The
account, along with a part-time job at a library, helped her spend several
hundred dollars a week on heroin.

"I'm the only one in my family without at least a bachelor's degree," she
said. She may not have a degree yet, but she was ranked No. 17 in a high
school class of more than 400. And she had enough credits to graduate from
high school early with a grade-point average of 4.25 out of 4.5.

Still, by age 16, both women had met people who could get them heroin and
they soon became addicted. More often than not, they used the drug alone.

Different roads to rehab

But there are differences between the women.

"I was never really into pot or drinking or other drugs. I wasn't a club
kid. I didn't party. I just wanted to be comfortable and lose weight,"
Lucinda said.

Leigh, on the other hand, began experimenting with drugs in eighth grade.
She smoked pot, took acid, snorted cocaine - but all infrequently. She got
the drugs from teen-age acquaintances she met hanging out at the mall and
at rave parties, all-night dance parties featuring laser shows,
synthesizers and designer drugs.

By the 11th grade, Leigh was shooting heroin every day - before school and
after school. The high lasted about six hours, so she only shot up at
school once, she said.

Whatever the similarities or differences, both Lucinda and Leigh ended up
in the same place - a methadone treatment clinic.

Addicts go to the clinics each day to get a dose of methadone, a synthetic
opiate intended to prevent withdrawals while slowly weaning patients from
heroin.

Lucinda was in rehab within 18 months after she first used heroin. When
that failed, she ended up in detox - three times. Detox is a treatment
program whose goal is to get the drugs out of the addict's system, and
while it did just that, it didn't stop Lucinda from using heroin again once
she got out.

So, she saw a psychiatrist, she went to Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
Still, nothing worked. She said the methadone program that she started in
September was her last resort.

Leigh also went through a number of rehab programs - beginning her senior
year in high school when she started experiencing withdrawal symptoms
during a school trip to Europe. She was so sick she finally had to confess
to the chaperones who "called my dad and said, 'Your daughter's a junkie.' "

After that, Leigh was checked into - and kicked out of - several rehab
centers across the country, she said. After repeated failures, and a
self-attempt to stop that lasted for nearly a year, she entered the
methadone program.

Heroin as self-medication

A common denominator that led the women to the drug was the desire to feel
good, to feel like other people. Leigh had suffered with depression as long
as she could remember. Lucinda was an insomniac who had trouble concentrating.

More than anything, Lucinda wanted to feel "normal," she said several times
during a recent interview.

The desire to feel normal and the ability to do so with the help of heroin
is often expressed by addicts, according to both Lambert and Dr. Charles
Morgan, a psychiatrist who works with drug addicts at Norwalk Hospital's
substance abuse program.

When using heroin, "they say they seem to be more focused, they have a
sense of well-being. But once they become physically dependent, it changes
8A their focus then becomes getting the drug to avoid becoming sick."

"I think it's clearly biological," Morgan said of heroin addiction. "We
have receptors in the brain and in these individuals, there's a malfunction
in the receptors. But we're not at the level yet to determine what's going
on with that receptor," he said.

Lucinda said she has no doubt that her addiction was caused by a biological
imbalance, something that could happen to anyone.

"A lot of kids my age think they're invulnerable 8A that they could never
be an addict. Even some of my friends, they're doing coke or X [ecstasy],
but they think I'm the only one with a problem," she said.

Addiction shocks families

Invulnerability among youth is a stereotype that often rings true, as is
the image of parents who had no idea their child was using drugs, Morgan said.

"Parents are usually shocked to find out their child is using heroin. It's
usually shock and dismay," he said.

"They say, 'I knew you were smoking pot, but I can't believe you're using
heroin. How did you get it?' They just are shocked that this could happen
in their family."

For Leigh and Lucinda, the future is unclear.

Leigh is working full time at a job she's not happy with and living at home
with a mother who doesn't know that she relapsed last year and turned to
methadone for help. She hopes to get a job as a graphic artist, a field in
which she was working when heroin consumed her life.

Lucinda - who declined to talk about her parents, saying only that they
were "supportive" - isn't working now and isn't sure what she wants to do.
For now, she and her counselor agreed, she has to direct all her attention
to not using heroin.

"I have every intention of living a full, productive, normal lifestyle.
Before, I thought my destiny was to be on the streets forever. Now, I
actually think I can be something."

[sidebar]
On Wednesday, Norwalk resident Virginia Katz, whose son died of a heroin
overdose, will speak to eighth-graders at Jockey Hollow Middle School in
Monroe about the dangers of the drug. After the 1998 death of her son, a
college student, Katz founded the Courage to Speak Foundation. Katz travels
New England talking to students about drugs.

HEROIN FACTS * What is it? Heroin is a highly addictive drug derived
from the sap of the seed pods of poppies grown in tropical countries. It is
available in a brown tar form, imported from Mexico, or a white powder,
imported from Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia or Colombia.

* How is it ingested? Low-potency heroin can be dissolved and injected,
and high-purity versions of the drug may be sniffed, smoked or inhaled.

* How is it sold? In glassine or colored heat-sealed bags with a logo,
which amounts to a brand name stamped on the bag, serving as a promotion
for dealers. Each bag contains about 0.1 grams of powder and bags range in
price from $8 to $20, with the average price in Bridgeport being $10.

* Signs of use? "Pin," or very small, eye pupils; nodding off; dramatic
weight loss; sudden, unexplained illness; mood swings; pallid skin.

* What effect does it have? Heroin may initially bring a sense of well
being and invincibility to the user. But the user must ingest increasing
amounts of the drug to derive the same effect, thus becoming addicted.
Heroin also brings on numerous unpleasant sensations and problems, such as
sedation, irregular heart rate and depressed respiration that may lead to
coma and death, clouded thinking, nausea and vomiting, suppression of pain
as well as feelings associated with hunger and sexual pleasure, arthritis,
collapsed veins, abscesses, infections of the heart or other vital organs
and damage to organs from impurities in street drugs. Users may also become
infected with diseases, such as AIDS or hepatitis B and C, through sharing
hypodermic needles with fellow addicts or using unclean water to prepare
their drugs for injection.

* What happens if an addict tries to quit heroin? Mental and physical
withdrawal trauma may begin within a few hours of ceasing use of heroin.
Cold flashes with goose bumps, known as "cold turkey," are among the many
symptoms that include restlessness, runny nose, muscle and bone pain,
insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting and random leg movements. Major symptoms peak
within a day or two and subside after a week. However, some people and
long-term users experience withdrawal for many months or years and may
require methadone maintenance.

* What is methadone? Methadone is a synthetic opiate used for treating
people who have been addicted to heroin. Considered a medication by drug
counselors, methadone helps recovering addicts cope with depression,
lethargy and other problems associated with disruption of brain and body
chemistry caused by heroin dependency. Unlike heroin, people on a methadone
maintenance program can work and function normally without increasing
amounts of the drug.

* New treatments? USA Today reported last month that the Food and Drug
Administration could approve new drugs for the treatment of heroin
addiction as early as September. The new drugs block heroin withdrawals and
are reportedly less addictive are harder to misuse than methadone. Some of
the new drugs being developed also only need to be taken monthly, as
opposed to methadone, which users must ingest daily at clinics.

Sources: Drug Enforcement Administration, National Institute on Drug Abuse,
Connecticut Counseling Centers