HEROIN USE SEEN DECLINING AMONG YOUNG SUSPECTED OFFENDERS IN MANHATTAN

New Haven -- Heroin use and the injection of drugs have declined sharply
among young people who were arrested in manhattan and some other urban
centers, according to a survey of their drug habits.

The survey by Dr. Bruce D. Johnson and Dr. Andrew Golub, sociological
researchers who chart the drug culture of new york city's streets, was
presented this weekend at a conference of policy specialists, historians
and medical experts, who gathered at Yale university to review the
notorious rise of heroin since it was introduced to the world 100 years ago
as a cough syrup.

The finding that more young offenders, who tend to be black or hispanic and
poor, were shunning heroin surprised some conference participants, because
it conflicts with reports that heroin is increasingly popular nationwide
among young users who consider it glamorous.

But Dr. Johnson, who directs a unit of the nonprofit national development
and research institutes in manhattan, warned against comparing his survey
with more sweeping studies like the federal government's annual national
household survey on drug abuse. The two surveys use different methods and
analyze different populations of drug users. They also vary in measuring
the patterns and extent of drug use.

The latest federal survey released in august estimated that 171,000
americans tried heroin for the first time in 1996, compared with 141,000
new users in 1995. They have also grown younger, the study found, with 90
percent of new initiates to heroin not yet 26 years old.

One hypothesis advanced by Dr. Johnson and several other experts is that
young people growing up in impoverished neighborhoods may be choosing not
to inject or smoke heroin because they have seen too many relatives and
older friends become addicted and contract the aids virus after shooting up.

"They have had a hard enough experience that they do not want to get
involved with heroin," Dr. Johnson said. "They do not want to get involved
with injection; they do not want to get aids." But he added, "I can't say
anything about heroin use by people outside that pool of arrestees."

With no such personal experience, more affluent adolescents are tempted to
try heroin because its greater availability and purity make it easy to
snort or smoke. The heroin chic portrayed in films, rock music and fashion
also entices younger users, said jill jonnes, the author of "hep cats,
narcs and pipe dreams," an american history of illegal drug use.

Dr. David nurco, a research professor at the university of maryland medical
school, said that 40 percent of heroin users had never been arrested, and
that it took an average of five years from the onset of addiction until the
first arrest.

The survey by Dr. Golub and Dr. Johnson relied on the findings of the
arrestee drug abuse monitoring program, better known by its acronym adam,
which monitors illicit drug use by offenders arrested in 23 urban areas
across the country.

The program, which was previously called drug use forecasting, is run by
the national institute of justice, a research arm of the justice
department. It collected data from 13,000 arrestees booked for criminal
offenses in manhattan from 1987 to 1997, using interviews and urine tests
to verify their drug use.

Dr. Johnson and Dr. Golub studied so-called "birth cohorts" of inner-city
residents who share attitudes that set them apart them from other
generations of drug users. Among manhattan arrestees born in 1949, 52
percent reported injecting drugs, mainly heroin, compared with 15 percent
of those born in 1965 and only 1 percent of those born in 1977. But 62
percent of the arrestees born in 1977 tested positive for marijuana,
compared with 12 percent of those born in 1949.

Dr. Johnson said his findings in manhattan could change when the justice
department expands its program to include new york city's four other
boroughs. Heroin use by suspected offenders has also declined noticeably in
chicago, los angeles and washington, among other cities.

Dr. David musto, the child psychiatrist and heroin expert at Yale medical
school who organized the conference, told the participants, "our nation's
involvement with heroin over the past century teaches us not to
underestimate its attraction."

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company

Checked-by: Pat Dolan