MORE HEROIN ADDICTS SEEK HELP THAN COCAINE ABUSERS

WASHINGTON - The number of Americans checking into treatment
centers for heroin and other opiates has surpassed those seeking help
for cocaine, the government reported Wednesday.

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.

Meanwhile, 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.