THE POWDERY CONTENTS ARE GONE, BUT THE STAMP OF ADDICTION REMAINS

GENERATIONS of addicts have prowled the Lower East Side looking for a
fix, and countless bags of heroin have changed hands there. The
powder in those bags was quickly consumed; the empty bags tossed
aside until most of them were blown away by the wind or washed away
by the rain.

But some of them have found their way into a collection maintained by
Clayton Patterson.

Mr. Patterson, 58, a photographer, has been collecting "dope bags"
for 20 years. Some he found while walking the streets or visiting
spots where addicts have congregated. Others were given to him by a
revolving cast of characters who shared his fascination.

"This collection reflects a major part of the underground culture in
this neighborhood," Mr. Patterson said. "Dope dealing was one of the
biggest parts of the neighborhood and one of the least documented."

Mr. Patterson said his fascination with the bags started in the
mid-1980's when a heroin user showed him an album in which he had
placed bags and listed the places where he had bought them. Over the
years, Mr. Patterson has added to that album and started another.

Mr. Patterson estimated that he has collected nearly 2,000 bags, and
about 700 of those are cataloged. The bags, which are generally made
of plastic or wax paper, bear names or images that identify the
contraband inside. Those labels -- part turf marker, part marketing
message -- allowed users to differentiate among dealers and evaluate
the drug's purity.

Although the collection is dominated by heroin bags from the Lower
East Side, it also includes a few from Brooklyn and a handful that
once contained cocaine.

The collection, viewed page after page in the albums, has a magnetic
quality, even when considering the untold misery that the contents
doubtlessly created. Some of the labels, like D.O.A., Body Bag, Post
Mortem or Poison, seemingly embrace the dangerous reality of their
contents. A brand of heroin sold on the Lower East Side in 1982 was
stamped with letters that spelled AIDS. There are brands named F.B.I.
and Secret Service and others called Forsythe or 4th D, which refer
to where the heroin was sold. Devil's Bag, sold in 1985, was stamped
with a Manhattan phone number.

Though the collection might strike some as grisly, Mr. Patterson
thinks it has a lasting value and is hoping to create a book to
document the history of heroin in the area.

"We're talking about relics from a Lower East Side street drug
culture that is gone," he said. "I think evidence of that time
deserves to be preserved."