HEROIN-OVERDOSE DEATHS INCREASING IN MINNEAPOLIS

The number of deaths from heroin overdoses is increasing in Minneapolis,
prompting concern by police that a dangerous trend is emerging.

On Friday, police issued an alert for Minneapolis officers to gather
information on heroin suppliers.

In the first two months of 2000, at least five people have died from heroin
overdoses, the Hennepin County medical examiner's office said Friday. In
some cases, the drug was used with alcohol and other drugs.

Last year, at least 10 people died of such heroin-related overdoses in
Hennepin County. Toxicology tests are pending in other deaths this year;
those results could raise the toll.

More people have overdosed recently on heroin and survived, Lt. Dan Grout
said.

Many overdoses aren't brought to the attention of police, but at least 14
nonfatal heroin overdoses have been recorded by officers since June, Grout
said.

Although many of the cases are concentrated in south Minneapolis, a gradual
rise in heroin use has been noticed by other metropolitan law enforcers. In
Washington County, for example, Sheriff's Capt. Michael Johnson said
deputies are noticing a slight increase in heroin arrests.

The victims range from their early 20s to their 50s and include the poor
and the affluent. The heroin overdoses are being fueled by lower prices and
an increase in people sniffing it rather than injecting it, officials said.

National trend

"Heroin use has been gradually increasing here and around the country in
the 1990s," said Carol Falkowski, who monitors drug trends in Minneapolis
for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "And what we are seeing now is
enough to register on the local radar screen."

Other cities reporting an increase in heroin deaths include Tacoma, Wash.,
and Portland, Ore., according to published reports.

Lt. Isaac De Lugo of the Minneapolis narcotics unit issued a memo Friday to
alert commanders of the city's five precincts. De Lugo advised officers of
an "alarming trend" in heroin use and deaths in the city.

He asked that they gather information on the streets concerning heroin use
and sale.

Both he and Dr. Kathryn Berg of the Hennepin County medical examiner's
office said it's not known whether the deaths are caused by purer heroin on
the streets or an increase in users.

Berg said she hasn't seen higher concentrations of heroin in the bodies of
those who died after using it. But that doesn't rule out that more potent
heroin could be on the streets, she said.

In some cases, people ingested heroin, a depressant, with alcohol. That
enhances the depressant effect and can shut down a person's breathing, she
said. Heroin users can die after injecting, snorting or smoking the drug,
Berg said.

In one recent case, Richard Bacote, 40, was found dead Feb. 1 in the
bathroom of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on the 1700 block of E.
32nd St. Police said he had a hypodermic needle in his arm and had consumed
alcohol. He recently had been released from prison.

Megan O'Keefe, 20, of Minneapolis, died Dec. 20 in her former boyfriend's
downtown apartment after ingesting heroin and other drugs, according to the
medical examiner. The boyfriend, Richard J. Gittleson, 29, called his
lawyer, who in turn called 911 about an hour or more after the death, said
police and the Hennepin County medical examiner. Police suspect she snorted
the heroin.

Police are investigating who gave her the drugs, Grout said. Gittleson's
lawyer, Alan Margoles, said his client is not responsible for the death.

Losing some stigma?

Falkowski, a senior researcher at the Hazelden Foundation near Center City,
Minn., said heroin is becoming popular with younger users, who are sniffing
it.

"The idea of heroin as the hardest, most addictive drug has eroded as it
becomes sniffable and abused with other drugs by young partygoers in a
nightclub setting," Falkowski said Friday from Hazelden, a nonprofit
organization that provides treatment, research and training in chemical
dependency.

The sniffing or snorting of cocaine removes, for some, the stigma that
heroin is a drug used only by junkies shooting up with needles, she said.
It also removes the fear that HIV will be spread by the needles, she said.

In other cities, she said, researchers have documented the increasing use
of heroin that is not only sniffed, but mixed with cocaine and the designer
drug Ecstasy and then sold in capsules in nightclubs.

In December, Falkowski reported that heroin deaths in the Twin Cities area
equaled cocaine deaths for the first time. That report was based on
statistics gathered in the first half of 1999.

"If they're still breathing, we're able to reverse the heroin overdose
fairly easily by using a drug called Naloxone," said Dr. Brian Mahoney, an
emergency physician at Hennepin County Medical Center.

The deaths so far this year in Minneapolis have been mostly on the city's
south side.

According to the medical examiner's office, the deaths include:

Bruce Collins, 37, who died Jan. 18 in the emergency department of Hennepin
County Medical Center. Collins lived in the 2500 block of Sheridan Av. N.
He died after ingesting heroin and cocaine. An autopsy also found that he
had lung disease and that his heart was failing, possibly from heavy drug use.

Malissa Dick, 24, who was found dead Jan. 22 of a heroin overdose in her
home in the 4100 block of 30th Av. S.

Richard Dauner, 50, who died Feb. 1 at home from an overdose of heroin
mixed with alcohol. He lived in the 2200 block of Bryant Av. S. Bacote died
the same day.

Timothy Rozas, 45, of Edina, who was found dead Feb. 6 in a house in the
5900 block of 14th Av. S.

Richard E. Schoen, 39, who died Feb. 24 in his home in the 1900 block of
Columbus Av. S. Toxicology tests are pending, so the medical examiner
hasn't ruled on the cause of his death. But police say Schoen was using
heroin.

Anyone with information on the heroin suppliers can call police at
612-673-3455 and remain anonymous.