CHEAP HEROIN FUELS TEEN ADDICTION

The latest addiction for some Westford teens isn't iPods, it's heroin.

"The change we have seen recently is that teens have discovered that
heroin no longer needs to be injected and can be snorted. So some
teens are getting into that. It's still heroin and it's still very
addictive," said Detective Sgt. Kenneth Delaney of the Westford Police.

Delaney said the Westford group buying heroin is very small, and
although it once included users who were as young as 15, it is now
more prevalent in the 17- to 19-year-old age group. The older teens
have more of the means and mobility to acquire heroin, he said.

"It's also cheap. A teen can buy a bag of heroin for $5. They can
pool their money to buy larger quantities of it. They either drive to
Lowell for it or they meet on an isolated road in Westford like the
other side of Route 40 or Route 110 and make a buy," Delaney said.

Sometimes, Delaney said, teens will go into a Westford house and make
a transaction inside the house.

Last week two area men were arraigned in Ayer District Court on
charges of drug trafficking on Groton Road in Westford.

Westford and other area towns are experiencing a slight spike in
heroin addiction because of population growth due to more Baby
Boomers with kids who are in their late teens and early 20s and
because heroin is cheap and plentiful, according to Mass. State
Police Lt. Dennis Brooks, with the Special Investigation Unit of the
District Attorney's Office.

"A small stamp-sized bag of heroin that contains about .04 grams of
heroin can sell on the street for as low as $3 to as high as $20. And
now that heroin brings in twice what cocaine does to dealers, heroin
is on the rise," Brooks said.

Brooks said the heroin in the Westford area comes mainly from the
Dominican Republic to Lowell.

"Lowell is the source city for Westford users and second to Lowell is
Fitchburg," Brooks said.

Brooks said getting heroin is almost as easy as ordering a
home-delivered pizza.

"They do deliver. It's kind of sad. There are actually runners who
will deliver heroin at a prearranged meeting place or meet at a car
on a road or sometimes go inside a house. That's what happened in
Westford last week," he said.

Brooks said the dealers have some very high-tech methods of
concealing the drugs they are carrying.

"We call them 'hydraulic lifts.' These are panels that are built
right into the frame of the car, behind the back seat say, and they
are closed with a hydraulic piston. The hydraulic motor is connected
to a part of the electrical system like the defroster or a fan switch
and the drug runner can flip the switch, and just like the flap on an
airplane wing, the lift panel will open and you can get at the drugs
inside," he said.

But you cannot pry it open with a screwdriver, for example.

"So police really have to know where to look and how to get around
the electrical system. Fortunately for us, we have ways to get around
the system," Brooks said.

Because of the amount of readily available heroin on the streets, it
has become the drug of choice in the Northeast, according to Brooks.

"Crystal meth is big in the South, but heroin is big up here," he said.

Brooks said there has been a 600 percent increase in drug overdoses
across the state and health experts are blaming increased use of
heroin, oxycontin and other opiates for that increase.

"In Melrose, there were four overdoses in a week, one of which was
fatal," he said.

Brooks said the state police and other law enforcement agencies want
to catch the drug dealers and get help for the users.

"We go after the dealers with a vengeance. Most of the users aren't
bad people. They just made a bad decision. We find it is critical to
get users - especially teens - the support system they need to get
off heroin," Brooks said.

Westford School Superintendent Everett "Bill" Olsen said school
officials and staff "try to pay close attention to behaviors students
exhibit that may indicate they are having problems. We know it would
be naive to think that there aren't any heroin users but we know there are."

Olsen said that next week the school will hold training workshops for
teachers and staff about identifying drug abuse. "We approach drug
abuse from a global perspective and are concerned not only for
students but staff. We want to help them so there won't be a repeat
of some of the abuse problems we've had in the past," Olsen said.

"Our strong point is our staff, particularly at the middle school and
the high school where problems tend to manifest themselves. Our staff
relates to the kids well and have strong relationships with the
students," Olsen said. This is the first step in solving the problem, he said.

Delaney recommends teens and parents visit the health site,
samhsa.gov for the latest information about the problems of teen
addiction to heroin.

According to the Web site, the ways you can tell if a friend is
exhibiting symptoms of heroin use are euphoria, drowsiness, impaired
mental functioning, slowed down respiration, constricted pupils, and
nausea. The Web site emphasizes that there is no safe way of
ingesting heroin and users can die from an overdoes or become
addicted by snorting or smoking it.

"Parents or teens could also call us for more information. We've run
seminars but some people don't want to be seen at them or are in
denial that this problem is happening in their home," Delaney said.

Delaney said teens should not be afraid to ask for help.

"We want to help kids who call. We're not going to arrest them. We
want them to get the help they need now. The longer they are using
heroin and not admitting they are addicted, the longer it will take
to get them off it," he said.