CLINIC EXEC: HEROIN MORE AVAILABLE THAN EVER

As a long-time Tunxis Hose volunteer firefighter in Farmington, Brian
Hunter Jr. can describe a particular type of medical call that he
sees every so often.

And Hunter admits that it never ceases to amaze him.

"They look dead, their lips may even be blue," Hunter said. "But when
you shoot them with Narcan, they sit straight up and start swinging.
A lot of times, they're angry that you messed up their high."

Over the years, as the first responders to a medical emergency,
Hunter and his fire company have seen more than a few heroin
overdoses. In fact, Hunter said they have a couple of residences in
town where they have shown up to respond to a heroin overdose - only
to be called to the same location for the same type of call a few months later.

"It is disheartening," Hunter admits. "You bring someone back and
within a matter of months, you're at their house again doing the same
thing over and over again."

Treatment specialists and police said the problem is that the same
attributes that make heroin an attractive mellow high also make it
deadly, slowing the heart rate and breathing to dangerous levels.
According to an Internet drug index, narcotics such as heroin or
morphine depress the nervous system and can induce a coma,
respiratory depression and sometimes death.

And heroin is also cheap, readily available and highly addictive.

"I know people who, when they hear about an overdose or a
particularly strong batch, will seek out that heroin in particular
because they want the strongest stuff possible," said Burlington
resident and State Trooper Ray Buthe. "They somehow think they'll
never be the ones to die."

A cheaper high

Paul McLaughlin, executive director of the Hartford Dispensary, said
heroin is more available now than at any other time. And what his
agency is seeing is suburban kids and adults "transitioning" from
expensive prescription drugs to heroin as a way to get high less expensively.

"There has been a significant reverse in availability of heroin, it's
more available now than ever before," McLaughlin said. "The trend
we're seeing is that people start by abusing prescription drugs and
then switch to street drugs because heroin is more affordable."

The Hartford Dispensary is the largest drug treatment program under
the umbrella of the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction
Services. McLaughlin said statewide, they serve 4,300 clients a day.

The agency opened a clinic in Bristol about a mile west of the
Farmington line on Route 6 four years ago. The clinic serves clients
in 10 towns including Bristol, Farmington, Avon, Canton, Burlington,
Harwinton and Simsbury.

"We thought that we would make treatment services more accessible to
people in the Bristol area," McLaughlin said. "We started with 125
clients from all 10 towns, now we have 400."

McLaughlin provided figures that indicate in 2005, 93 clients in
Farmington, Avon, Burlington, Canton, Harwinton and Simsbury listed
their drug of choice as heroin and have sought treatment at either
the Bristol or Hartford branch of the Hartford Dispensary. In 1995,
the number of clients attending the Hartford Dispensary in Hartford
from the same towns who listed heroin as their drug of choice was 17.

Buthe said in addition to the cheap cost, the attraction to heroin is
in part based on it's "sleepy" high. "It's not like crack (cocaine)
where people get violent, it makes you mellow and sleepy," Buthe
said. "A lot of people use it before bed."

Quickly addicted

Buthe said heroin users generally start their addiction the same way:
"almost everyone says the first time they used it, they became
addicted, it's usually a two-or three-day stint where they use it
constantly, by the end of that period, they're hooked."

And Buthe said it's a drug that requires more and more to keep the
same level of high. "I have people tell me that they would never
inject themselves," Buthe said. "They start by snorting it instead
and then they need more and more and wind up injecting."

Police said the other significant issue is the question of quality.
Farmington Police Chief James Rio said users don't consider where
they are getting the drug from. "If you sit back and look at this,
you have to at some point say to yourself, I'm not buying this from a
pharmacist, I'm buying it from a creep," Rio said. "Every time you
buy you have no idea what you're getting."

And you have no idea if your next hit will be your last. Hunter said
paramedics regularly use a drug called Narcan to rouse heroin addicts
from a drug overdose.

If administered in time, Narcan is a narcotic-antagonist, it counters
the effect of heroin on the nervous system, bringing the patient back
from the brink of death quickly. The result will often induce the
roaring jump start back to life that Hunter described. But it will
also give the addict the opportunity to get high again.

"We had one situation where we brought a guy back from a heroin
overdose and then honored one of our firefighters for the rescue,"
Hunter said. "Imagine what it was like to go to the same address and
do the whole thing over again a few months later."

To seek treatment for drug addictions, call the main branch of the
Hartford Dispensary at 527-5100.