FEVER BROKEN
As Cocaine Use Wanes, Heroin Abuse Increases

A little more than a decade ago, Richmond was stunned when the number
of murders committed in the city jumped from 80 to 99 in one year.

The increase took police completely by surprise. Not only did they
have no idea it was coming, they didn't have the manpower or tools to
handle it. But whenever they talked about it, they blamed one thing
for all the violence -- crack cocaine.

From 1988 on, it was one bad year after another. The mayhem peaked in
1994, when 160 people were murdered. And the big reason was always the
same -- crack cocaine.

Now, suddenly, the number of murders has declined to totals that
haven't been seen since the early 1980s. The police have gotten their
bearings, the manpower and the technology. And, not surprisingly,
almost everyone thinks that just as the advent of crack drove up the
number of murders, its decline is bringing it down.

These days, several studies show, crack is out and heroin is in. And
experts pretty much agree that, as bad as heroin is, it does not lead
to the kind of violent behavior associated with the use of crack cocaine.

On top of that, at least one other study shows there is a direct
correlation between alcohol consumption and murder, and alcohol
consumption is down, too.

Dr. Rao Ivatury, chief of trauma surgery at Virginia Commonwealth
University's Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, said there's no
doubt that crack use has declined in favor of heroin. "Crack is the
one that makes them extremely aggressive," he said.

His emergency room, which is the highest level of trauma center, has
seen a decline in shooting victims in recent years and an increase in
stabbing victims. He said there are many reasons for that, including
police programs such as Project Exile, but he laid part of the reason
to a change in the drug culture.

Colleen McCue, an assistant professor of surgery at MCV, has been
studying homicide trends in the city in conjunction with Richmond
police for years. She also said the change in the drug of choice may
have had something to do with the decline in drug-related violent crime.

But, she added, "I don't know that [switching to heroin] is something
to be jumping up and down about."

Joan N. Neff, associate professor of sociology at the University of
Richmond, said studies have shown a reduction in the use of crack
cocaine, though not necessarily an increase in the use of heroin.

She also said that it's a national trend. It's not just in
Richmond.

A recent article in The New York Times said the crack epidemic has
ended everywhere. The article noted that drug-use surveys, arrest
statistics and the personal narratives of scores of users, dealers and
street-level narcotics officers points to the same pattern: The crack
epidemic behaved much like a fever. It hit hard, rose and then broke.

Many of the crack heads who fueled the rise in homicides that started
in the late 1980s either are dead or in prison, or they simply have
outgrown the drug.

Neff said a decline in the use of a far more common drug probably also
has something to do with the decline in crime.

Neff cited a recent study published in the National Institute of
Justice Journal that looked at the correlation between alcohol
consumption and homicides over a 62-year period. "If you want to talk
about a drug that contributes to assaults, it's alcohol," Neff said.

The study shows the homicide rate across the country runs parallel to
the rate of alcohol consumption. And alcohol use is down.

The study was done by Robert Nash Parker, professor of sociology and
the director of the Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies at
the University of California, Riverside.

"At the community or neighborhood level, locations with large
concentrations of alcohol outlets are often hot spots of crime,
attracting all kinds of people for a wide variety of leisure
activities -- many of which, like drug use and gang activity, are
illegal activities. The only reason these illegal activities occur in
these spots is that the concentration of alcohol outlets creates an
atmosphere of 'time out,' anything goes, the usual rules do not apply
here," Parker wrote.

So, everyone agrees that drugs are a big part of the problem -- and a
big part of the solution.

"The old style of doing the drug business has changed" in the last
decade, Neff said. The dealers largely have moved indoors in response
to all the police initiatives.

Police have been coming up with programs aimed primarily at
street-corner drug dealers for more than a decade. There was the
Selected Neighborhood Action Patrol, which started in 1986; Weed and
Seed, starting in 1991; the Residential Intensive Patrol in 1995; the
Operation Street Heat crackdown on drug hot-spots in 1996 and 1997;
and Operation Blitz to Bloom last year.

The dealers still are dealing, but they're not doing it on the street
corners. They're selling to people they know, and they're not battling
for turf. "The need for weapons has declined," Neff said.

Don Thompson, special agent in charge of the Richmond FBI,
agreed.

"Crack markets tended to spur a lot of violence because there was a
lot of trafficking right out on the streets with open-air markets," he
said.

On top of those changes, the demographics also have changed, Neff
said. "A lot of those people have grown older, or are in prison, or
dead. . . . The population that was prone to violence has been
somewhat incapacitated."

Thompson, however, warned against complacency.

"Crack is still around," he said. "It would be naive and foolish for
anyone to state that the use of crack cocaine in Richmond is a
historical problem, because it's not."