HEROIN USE BOOMING IN SPOKANE

The Heroin Business Here Is Booming.

The number of Spokane County residents admitted for heroin treatment
nearly quintupled between 1992 and 1998, jumping from 78 to 367,
according to a state Department of Social and Health Services report
released last week.

Spokane County is the state's per capita leader in treating heroin
addicts. Rates exceed those in Seattle during the mid-1990s' heroin
boom.

Spokane's county-run methadone clinic, the only one in Eastern
Washington, is so packed that, for the first time, it's having to turn
people away.

"It's very similar to the spike we saw in crack cocaine," said Mike
Forness, program manager for the Deaconess Chemical Dependency Unit.
"Now it's heroin."

The full extent of the problem isn't known because good statistics on
use of the drug and fatal overdoses aren't available. However, local
agencies treating substance abuse say low-cost, high-quality heroin is
flooding Spokane.

At Spokane's Community Detox, requests for help from heroin addicts
have risen sharply in the past eight months. People in the agency's
detox unit for heroin addiction outnumber alcoholics 2 to 1.

The region is likely being deluged by the same Mexican heroin that's
been popular in Seattle, said Ken Stark, head of the state Division of
Alcohol and Substance Abuse.

Roger Silfvast, head of Community Detox, said heroin prices have
fallen to $20 to $25 for a large quarter-gram dose as dealers flood
the market.