DRUG USE KILLING HOMELESS PEOPLE

San Francisco - Heroin's popularity is growing among San
Francisco's homeless -- and it's killing them.

Of 86 drug-related deaths among the homeless last year, 40 were
connected to heroin, according to a study released Tuesday.

"Cocaine is a drug of celebration, and heroin is a drug of
desperation," said Evelyn James, spokesman for the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration in San Francisco. "When people are on the
street and they want to feel out of it heroin will do that for them."

One-hundred-fifty-seven homeless people died in San Francisco between
Dec. 1, 1997 and Nov. 30, 1998 -- the highest number since the city
started keeping track in 1987.

"The majority of people you see on the street have a substance abuse
problem. That problem is what caused them to be homeless," said Earl
Rynerson, a former member of San Francisco's Human Services
Commission, which decides how to allocate public money.

Pure heroin is readily available on the streets and can be had at a
relatively low cost. A single dose, about a quarter gram, costs about
$20.

Critics say much of the $287 monthly assistance payments many homeless
receive doesn't go toward food or housing.

The 157 deaths far exceeded both the 104 recorded the previous year
and the average of 118 deaths each year on city streets since 1987.

Authorities estimate as many as 14,000 people live on San Francisco's
streets.

Checked-by: derek rea