HEROIN IS HERE

Overdose Deaths Rising

Heroin in Lane County? Hold on. Heroin is a big-city drug, the last
resort of the most down and out junkies of Harlem or Houston. Druggies
in bucolic Lane County stick to marijuana, methamphetamine or cocaine,
right?

Not any more. As Eric Mortenson's revealing stories show, heroin has
made significant inroads in Eugene-Springfield and the surrounding
area. Its tracks are visible on more than just the arms of serious
users.

Moreover, heroin is now being tried by teen-agers and young adults,
who formerly would have shunned it. They are attracted partly by
glamorization of the drug in some movies and other entertainment
media. They are enticed by the fact that the price of a fix has
dropped in recent years, apparently because of an increased supply of
a product that comes primarily from Mexico.

Worst of all, they have been encouraged to experiment with heroin by a
widespread belief that if you just smoke it and don't shoot it, you
won't get addicted. Smoking in this case means inhaling the fumes
emitted by a chunk of the sticky substance heated on a piece of foil
or whatever else is handy.

This is a myth, of course. Those who smoke eventually need a stronger
effect, the kind that can come only from the traditional injection.

The stimulus for this investigation was not just increasing use but
the increasingly fatal use of this powerful drug. Thirty-three people
died of heroin overdoses in Lane County last year, eight times more
than a decade ago. The record will probably be broken again this year,
with heroin-related deaths being recorded at the rate of one a week
since July.

So why should anybody care? Drug addicts aren't drafted, after all.
They volunteer for their fate. If drug use degrades their lives and
sometimes leads to premature death, isn't that the users' problem?

Putting aside all humanitarian concern, the coldhearted answer to that
question would be yes if it were not for one big factor: People on
drugs often turn to crime to support their habits.

That pattern is notorious among heroin addicts. Police believe that
virtually all the prostitutes in Eugene use heroin, plying their trade
to finance their habit. The drug has been implicated in growing
numbers of burglaries and thefts - and bank robberies.

But if heroin has now become a public problem by joining the list of
drugs popular in this area, what can be done to curb its use? There
are not many options. The best is prevention: stopping people,
particularly young people, from ever "experimenting" in the first
place. Educational efforts toward this end must be increased.

Once users are hooked, unfortunately, law enforcement can't help much.
Jailing people for possession of small amounts of heroin only sends
them through a revolving door. They will be released in a day or two
to make room for those accused of more serious crimes.

Methadone clinics appear to offer the best alternative, substituting a
less destructive drug for heroin in a way that enables an addict to
hold a job and live a reasonably normal - noncriminal - life. There
are only two clinics in the county today, serving 300 people. The
waiting list is three months long.

And thanks to the involvement of teen-agers with this drug, there is
now a disheartening need for detox facilities for the young.