RASH OF HEROIN DEATHS FAULT OF PURER DRUG?

Oscar Scaggs one of many addicts who have died in S.F. recently

Coroners' officials say a spate of recent heroin overdose deaths may be
caused by a super-potent batch of the opiate circulating on the streets of
San Francisco.

"We've had a lot of heroin deaths (over the New Year's holiday,)" said San
Francisco Medical Examiner Dr. Boyd Stephens. "We think there's something
coming through the area and either it's very concentrated or it's mixed
improperly."

Kandace Bender, the mayor's spokeswoman, put the number of heroin-related
deaths last weekend at as many as 12.

One of those was Oscar Scaggs, the 21-year-old son of singer Boz Scaggs, who
died of an apparent overdose on New Year's Eve.

Stephens said his office is coordinating with the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration to try to get a sample of the substance tested - a task that
is usually accomplished by confiscating the drug from someone who's been
arrested. The coroner is also passing word on to the mayor's office and
other city departments to inform users on the street.

"We're trying to get some warning out for users to beware," he said. "We
figure for every death we see, the paramedics are seeing about 10 more
overdoses that we never hear about."

On average, San Francisco hospitals see three heroin overdoses a day and one
death caused by the drug every third day.

Millicent Buxton, a former drug counselor, said she was not surprised at the
recent cluster of deaths, considering the fact that some of the heroin being
sold now is 60 percent pure.

"When you're not used to doing this (level of potency), your risk of
overdose is extraordinary," she said.

In years past, street-grade heroin was only 3 to 5 percent pure.

Stephens' theory that the escalated death rates seen over the New Year's
weekend might be caused by a particularly bad batch of heroin was questioned
by Dr. Karl Sporer, a San Francisco General Hospital emergency room
physician, who has studied heroin overdoses in The City.

"I've been studying this a long time and I don't think there are bad
batches," said Sporer, an associate professor at UCSF, who has tracked
overdoses in San Francisco for six years. "We tend to see more cases on the
first and 15th of the month and on holidays."

A San Francisco paramedics dispatcher concurred with Sporer, saying the
overdoses peak when people get their government checks and when they party
too much. City paramedics stock up on Narcan, a drug that reverses the
effects of opiates, on the first of every month, the dispatcher said.

Meanwhile, Lt. David Robinson of the San Francisco Police Department's
homicide unit said his officers were not investigating Scaggs' death.

"All the information is that it's a self-inflicted drug overdose death," he
said Tuesday. "We would not investigate unless something suggested it was
suspicious."

The Scaggs family held a private memorial service for Oscar Scaggs on
Tuesday night at Slim's, the club Boz Scaggs opened.

Family friend David Smith, the founder and medical director of the Haight
Ashbury Clinic, said the service was very moving and emotional as Oscar's
father and other speakers told their stories.

"Boz was very wonderful. He wrote a beautiful poem," Smith said. "He was
very emotional. There were pictures of Oscar there." Ray Delgado of The
Examiner staff contributed to this report.