FIVE COUNTIES BATTLE RISE IN HEROIN DEATHS

ORLANDO -- Heroin killed at least 48 people in Central Florida
last year, nearly twice as many as the previous year, when the drug
caused 25 deaths.

"On the street, this is something cool to try," said Orange County
Sheriff's Lt. Mike Miller, a supervisor in the drug unit. "And when
they try it for the first time, they're [already] high on GHB,
roofies, powder cocaine."

When final lab results are completed, the 1998 death toll for Orange,
Osceola, Seminole, Volusia and Brevard counties is expected to break
50, The Orlando Sentinel reported in its Sunday editions.

There would have been even more deaths except for the quick work of
paramedics and emergency room doctors, who saved 21 heroin overdose
victims, the newspaper reported.

A review by the newspaper of 1998 police and medical examiner records
shows the fatalities largely were confined to Orange, Osceola and
Seminole counties, with victims ranging in age from 18 to 45.

A new task force is arresting drug dealers, but heroin with a purity
and addictive power unheard of 10 years ago is easily available to
teens for $10 a dose.

In just five years, the drug has killed 136 people in the five
counties.

School drug-abuse talks and other programs pound home the dangers of
heroin, but most new users are at least 20 years old, untouched by
typical anti-drug efforts.

The U.S. House Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources
subcommittee will take a look at the problem during a public hearing
scheduled for Friday at Lake Howell High School near
Casselberry.

Orlando's heroin problem came to light in 1996 after six teens
overdosed and died within 10 months. Alarm over the deaths and higher
numbers of drug-trafficking arrests triggered town meetings and civic
and school plans to educate the public.

Authorities blamed the nightclub scene for easy access to drugs and
the rising popularity of heroin. But deaths continued to rise after
Orlando imposed a curfew for teens in downtown nightclubs.

Congress designated a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area stretching
from St. Petersburg to Daytona Beach with headquarters in Orlando. The
primary mission of the local-federal partnership was to target heroin
traffickers.

But the $1 million in federal funding to form the unit last January
didn't show up in Central Florida until August. And so far, the office
of drug czar Barry McCaffrey has allocated only about $1 million of an
expected $3 million for 1999.

Heroin and cocaine continue to arrive at Orlando International Airport
on flights from Puerto Rico.

The San Juan-to-Orlando pipeline is so established that the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement says it's the reason heroin is cheaper
and purer in Central Florida than anywhere else in the state. While
South Florida heroin tests 30 percent pure, the FDLE crime lab in
Orlando routinely finds street-level doses up to 97 percent pure.

Law enforcement officials say they need more money, manpower, drug
treatment and education programs to win the fight. But they say it
cannot be won while public apathy remains so high.

"Imagine if a gunman was out and responsible for the death of 50
people. We would be outraged," said Seminole County Sheriff Don
Eslinger, head of the board that oversees the High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area task force.

"There's no difference between the heroin trafficker and someone who
puts a gun to someone else's head," he said.