HEROIN SURPASSES COCAINE AT TREATMENT CENTERS

WASHINGTON (AP) The number of Americans checking into treatment centers for
heroin and other opiates has surpassed those seeking help for cocaine, the
government reported Wednesday, offering further evidence of heroin's spread.

The rise is fueled by users who snort and smoke heroin proof, experts say,
that these methods can be just as addictive as injecting the drug with needles.

The number of treatment center admissions for heroin and other opiates rose
by 29 percent up from 180,000 to 232,000 between 1992 and 1997, the report
found.

Cocaine, meanwhile, offered some good news: In that same five-year period,
cocaine admissions declined by 17 percent from 267,000 to 222,000, the
report said.

Alcohol abuse remains the most common reason people seek help, although it
is not as dominant as it once was, according to the annual report of
treatment trends by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.
While other surveys indicate marijuana is by far the most popular illegal
drug, it accounted for just 13 percent of admissions to treatment centers
in 1997, the most recent year for which data is available.

The report, which includes data from about two-thirds of the nation's drug
and alcohol admissions, also details demographic and geographic trends. It
finds heroin treatments were concentrated in the Far West and Northeast.
Methamphetamine, meanwhile, has spread from the West into the nation's
heartland.

About 16 percent of the 1.5 million treatment admissions in 1997 were for
heroin and other opiates, compared with 15 percent for cocaine, marking the
first time since 1992 that heroin has surpassed cocaine.

"People who are using heroin are discovering it is, in fact, a dangerous
drug," said Dr. H. Westley Clark, director of the Center for Substance
Abuse Treatment at HHS. Fashion magazines have been accused of glamorizing
heroin through use of strung-out-looking models. "Heroin chic there's a
down side to it," he said.

The perception on the street has been that heroin is only dangerous when
it's injected, Clark said, and injecting drugs does add the risk of
contracting the HIV virus or hepatitis.

"Snorting and smoking was something that people could accept as less
dangerous `You can't get as hooked, it's not as bad,'N' he said. "A number
of individuals are realizing that is not the case."

Barbara Fielding, counseling manager at a treatment center in Rockville,
Md., said heroin can be more devastating because people generally "binge"
on cocaine, using it only periodically but in great quantities.

"Once you're addicted to heroin, you have to have it every day," Fielding
explained. "Every day, they have to figure out how they're going to get the
money for that heroin."

The survey only includes programs that receive some HHS or state funding.
Privately funded centers such as Fielding's are not included, nor are some
funded by other federal agencies.

Still, experts believe the report provides a good look at changing patterns
of treatment, and it is the most complete study on the subject available.

The report provides a striking look at the geographic distribution of drug
use, particularly methamphetamine, also known as "speed," "crank,"
"crystal" and "ice." Nationally, it accounted for 5 percent of treatment
admissions in 1997, up from 2 percent in 1992. During the same years, it
showed a distinct movement from the West Coast into the Midwest.

In 1992, only California and Nevada had more than 50 admissions. By 1997,
there were that many across the Northwest and into Iowa, Missouri,
Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska and Utah.

"We call it the methamphetamine plague," said Alan Leshner, director of the
National Institute on Drug Abuse. "It's spreading like an infectious
disease across the country."

The survey also found:

Delaware, Oregon, Washington, Michigan and Utah saw an increase in heroin
admissions between 1992 and 1997. No state saw a decline.

Cocaine admission rates were highest in the Northeast and in some Southern
states.

Nearly half of the 1.5 million treatment admissions in 1997 were primarily
for alcohol, a proportion that has fallen from 59 percent when the survey
began in 1992.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated report, a university survey found that 82
percent of parents who had used marijuana would admit as much to their
children if they asked.

The telephone survey was conducted in May and June by the National Center
on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. It found that 56
percent of parents said they smoked marijuana in the 1960s and '70s, with
18 percent saying they used it regularly.

The survey of 1,000 parents had a margin of error of plus or minus 3
percentage points.