HEROIN MAKES A DEADLY COMEBACK

Mortal Drug Overdoses Climb In Metro Detroit

Pink foam recently expelled from his lungs has dried in the stubble on
his face, and a chunky silver watch dutifully ticks on an arm stiff
from rigor mortis.

Thirty-six hours before this November morning, he had been a healthy
ex-Marine in his 20s, home partying with friends.

Now he's Oakland County Medical Examiner's autopsy case No. 868, the
latest in a growing number of drug overdose deaths in southeast
Michigan that has medical and law enforcement officials searching for
explanations -- and answers.

"We ought to worry about this. We have a public health problem," said
Oakland County Medical Examiner Dr. L.J. Dragovic.

He has seen the number of overdose-related deaths climb dramatically
during the past two years.

The trend is similar in Macomb and Wayne counties, where 1999 overdose
deaths are expected to hit 3-year peaks.

Medical experts blame the increase largely on heroin's growing
popularity and potency. Although autopsies show most drug overdose
deaths are caused by combinations of drugs, heroin is often in the
mix.

"We're back to where we were in 1980 and 1981 with the heroin, with
people going in for treatment," said Sgt. Mike Lemons, narcotics
training officer with the Detroit Police Department. "It used to be
just crack, but what happened is you had a couple bumper crops of
heroin," he said, adding that the mixing of drugs has the most
destructive effect.

Often, the overdoses happen to known addicts who die despite the
efforts of family, friends or police.

Other times, it's a terrible revelation.

"I just don't think anyone knew what was going on inside him," said
the sister of a Wayne County man found dead earlier this year from a
drug overdose at a friend's suburban apartment.

She asked that their names not be used because many of the man's
relatives and friends were told only that he died of heart failure.

As drug deaths increase, so does the number of people looking for
help.

"We're seeing an increase in people seeking treatment," said Mike
Phillips, a recreational therapist at St. Joseph Mercy/Oakland
Hospital's Fox Center treatment facility in Pontiac. Admissions for
cocaine and heroin addictions for the first half of 1999 are 11
percent higher than for the same period last year.

At POH Medical Center in Pontiac, overdoses increased 15 percent
between 1997 and 1998.

On the streets of Detroit, volunteers with the Community Health
Awareness Group's needle exchange program see the problem firsthand.

But the problem hasn't yet registered with the public, said Harry
Simpson, the group's executive director.

"If you don't really have your ear to the ground, you're not aware of
it," he said. "It's kind of an emerging trend that providers aren't
aware of. Plus, the population involved isn't one that gets a lot of
attention paid to it. There's a sense that 'They know the risks; they
get what they deserve.' "

Charles Williams, a 20-year heroin and crack user who has been
drug-free for three years, said the drugs' powerful grip is difficult
for nonaddicts to understand.

"Nine out of 10 times, the course of your day is to make sure you
don't get sick," said Williams, 42, who recently moved from his native
Detroit to Roseville. "Withdrawals mean I had the sweats and freezing
like I don't know what -- too weak to stand up, your mind so weary you
don't want to think about nothing."

Overdose deaths don't scare addicts, Williams said.

"Let me tell you about overdoses. The people who hooked up that person
with drugs, he'd have 20 or 30 people knocking on his door trying to
get some, because they know it was good, strong drugs," Williams said.

Dangers of heroin

Heroin's resurgence is a nationwide trend.

"There's a feeling that heroin is replacing cocaine as the drug of
choice," said Lt. Charles Schumacher, captain of a
multi-jurisdictional Macomb County narcotics enforcement team.

Heroin also has been at the root of several recent high-profile
criminal cases.

Thomas Enfield testified that he was desperate for cash to feed his
heroin habit when he grabbed a purse from Priscilla Ricketts and ran
her over while making his getaway in a Troy parking lot two years ago.
He was convicted of murder last month.

And Berkley High School student Sarah Plumb's heroin addiction led her
to leave gymnastics practice to rob a gas station attendant at
gunpoint in late 1998, police say.

Experts say it's often the quality, not the quantity, of the heroin
that leads to fatal mistakes.

In the 1970s and '80s, much of what was consumed was only 5-percent
heroin and 95-percent inert filler. Today, drug raids often net
street-packaged heroin in concentrations greater than 50 percent, said
Dr. Richard Calkins, a researcher with the Michigan Department of
Community Health's Bureau of Substance Abuse Services.

"In the old days, you took a little bit more of it, and it didn't make
any difference. Now you take a little bit more, and it makes a huge
difference. That has been a factor in recent years," said Lloyd
Johnston, a research scientist at the University of Michigan's
Institute for Social Research.

Experts also say overdose victims are increasingly mixing types of
drugs, perhaps because a robust economy means more money to spend.

A multiple drug combination killed James Warner, 43, who died Nov. 4
in a Madison Heights motel room with a rock of crack next to his body,
two syringes in a drawer and a tourniquet around his arm.

Warner, who had battled mental illness his entire life and was active
in efforts to reform the Oakland County Community Mental Health
system, had been released from a state psychiatric treatment facility
in Caro the day before.

No relatives have claimed his body, which remains in a morgue freezer
awaiting burial arrangements.

"He's one individual, a statistic," said a friend, attorney David
Newman. "He died essentially homeless and nameless. But he was a
bright, articulate man with a lot of ideas, and he should not be
forgotten. I will miss him. He is not a statistic to me."