POLICE FORCES REPORT MORE HEROIN USE BY 'REGULAR KIDS'

Scott Simpson and Kelly Sinoski Vancouver Sun Several Lower Mainland
police forces are reporting an increase in heroin use by what they
term "regular kids," high-school students who live not in the
drug-ridden Downtown Eastside but instead in some of the region's most
affluent areas.

Vancouver police say high-school students have been dabbling with
"chasing the dragon" (smoking heroin) in the city's west side, while
West Vancouver police acknowledge they've also seen the problem in
their community.

And in the suburb of Port Moody, police are faced with a startling
increase in the number of local teenagers regularly using heroin.

"We're talking about teens you would consider to be regular kids,"
Vancouver police Constable Anne Drennan said in an interview Friday.
"What we're finding is kids who are doing this think it's no more
serious than smoking marijuana."

Drennan warns that using heroin is more dangerous than smoking pot,
saying it's a "quick high and quickly addictive" and can damage the
respiratory tract.

Heroin use is slowly increasing across the city, she said, and at
least two teenagers have died from "chasing the dragon" in the last
two years.

School-liaison officers in both Vancouver and West Vancouver are
working to educate kids about the dangers of heroin use. West
Vancouver police Corporal Anne Mason said heroin use isn't rampant in
her community, but "we do see it."

She added she is aware of kids as young as 14 using heroin at parties
in West Vancouver.

The city of Port Moody is planning a hard-nosed attack to deal with
the problem before it gets even worse.

Port Moody police estimate there are about 50 regular addicts and
heavy users in this seaside suburb of less than 25,000 people, and
they fear that dozens of other teens -- including kids as young as 12
- -- are at risk of falling prey to dealers who are operating from
Vancouver and New Westminster.

Port Moody police are also concerned that many dealers provide free
heroin to teenaged girls -- as a means of recruiting them into
prostitution.

Port Moody community relations liaison Constable Rob McGirr said this
is by no means a local, or even a regional, problem. He cited U.S.
national statistics showing that heroin use has increased fourfold
among teens over the past two years.

In "chasing the dragon," teens place the heroin on a piece of foil.
They then heat the foil and inhale the fumes.

The teens smoke, rather than inject, the drug -- because they are
fearful about the stigma attached to intravenous use -- but will
nevertheless become full-blown addicts after just two months of
regular use.

"Over the last 18 months we've been seeing a steady increase in the
number of teens involved with heroin," McGirr said. "By comparison, in
a city of 25,000 we'd usually have half a dozen people involved with
heroin that we come into contact with by one means or another.

"It appeared that those numbers were higher, so we undertook to pool
our information to date to see what we could come up with. We were a
little startled to find that within the first six days we'd identified
over 50 kids -- under 16 years of age -- that were directly involved
with cocaine or heroin, mostly heroin."

About one-third of the users are already facing charges related to
property crimes and police believe that without action, the number of
thefts will also begin to escalate as the users attempt to support
their habits.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady