The new heroin
It's more treacherous for younger users

07/06/97

Young people have always been tempted to dance with the devil, but
heroin is a troubling new partner indeed. The new heroin can quickly
steal the life of the novice user. So it was for 14yearold Victor
Andres Garcia of Plano. He died of an overdose of the drug in April. His
body was found in a church parking lot.

In January, heroin forever stopped the heartbeat of 13yearold Derrick
Dowse of Bedford. And just a few months before, a 17yearold dropout
from Grapevine overdosed at his girlfriend's home in East Dallas. After
he "shot up" with the drug, police say, he passed out, could not be
revived and died in the hospital emergency room.

That kids so young could obtain and want to use a drug that has been so
stigmatized is shocking. Several factors may explain the mystery more
sophisticated drug operations combined with deteriorating cultural mores
and "generational forgetting."

In the last few years, heroin use has gotten a mass media makeover.
Heroin is "in." Once, users were shown as tragic musicians with a
"golden arm." Or they were seen as pitiable wretches covered with open
sores.

But today's heroin clients more often are portrayed as chic models
living the high life in Manhattan, or streetwise guys in movies like
Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting.

For bored teens who wanted something new to experiment with, heroin was
the drug that had come back. It resurfaced first in the
glamourdrenched, selfindulgent worlds of alternative rock, haute
couture and Hollywood. After some frontpage overdose deaths in the
fashion crowd, even President Clinton was moved to speak out. In May he
warned the fashion industry, "you do not need to glamorize addiction to
sell clothes."

The fashion industry says it will clean up its images, but it should be
held accountable by the public if it does not. In the meantime, the
heroin chic already has moved from the big cities to the hinterlands.
Drug trends, like fashion trends, often hit the coasts first. Then they
find their way to midAmerica, and places like Bedford and Plano

"For years we've been talking about increases in heroin use," says
Brandy Wismer of the Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
"This is the first year we're starting to see it."

Heroin use in Texas is changing and increasing, according to various
drug trend sentinels.

* More and more callers to the Dallas Council on Drug Abuse are seeking
help for heroin abuse. In the spring of 1996, 3.9 percent of calls were
about heroin. That figure rose to 9.3 percent at the end of last year.
By May of this year, almost 12 percent of the calls were related to
heroin. "It was pretty dramatic," Ms. Wismer says.

* Deaths from heroin overdoses have jumped in several of Texas' most
populous counties.

* Though trends can shift abruptly, the street price of heroin is up 500
percent in Dallas since 1993. "A lot of times, that is an indicator of
demand," says Richard Spence, an assistant deputy director of the state
drug abuse commission. "It costs more to get the same high."

* Federal crackdowns in Miami and California obliged drug smugglers to
shift operations. Now most heroin comes into the United States through
Texas and is then shipped to the East and West coasts.

* Dallas Challenge, a clearinghouse for drug treatment and education for
adolescents, reports that 24 of its referrals acknowledged heroin use
last year. While the percentage was small, it served as a warning that
something was changing, like the telltale canary in the coal mine.

No, there is not an epidemic. Marijuana and alcohol remain the most
commonly used drugs among young people. And certainly drugs do cycle in
and out of popularity among faddish young people. Designer drugs like
Ecstasy were hot in the 1980s. And heroin has resurfaced before during
the Vietnam War, when studies showed up to 15 percent of GIs there
tested positive for the opiate.

The problem is that this is not your father's heroin. Law enforcement
officers say it is much purer than before. While those under its
influence may be passive, those in dire need of the money to score a hit
and avoid the excruciating agony of withdrawal may not be. Today's
youngsters often use heroin in combination with other drugs, creating a
more dangerous crossdependency. Then, too, there is little medical
research about the impact of heroin on young bodies that are still
growing.

Nor is this your father's world. Intravenous drug users 30 years ago had
to worry only about contracting hepatitis if they shared needles.
Hepatitis is unpleasant but rarely fatal. Now drug users who share
needles and their intimate partners confront AIDS. An estimated 50
to 80 percent of all needleusing heroin addicts in the New York area
test positive for the AIDS virus.

So, yes, heroin can kill, and kill more easily than before. It will
probably claim more lives before another drug replaces it or before more
people wise up.

But beyond the news stories of another overdose death, many adults may
not be familiar with the "new heroin."

More public awareness is needed so parents, teachers and drug treatment
professionals will understand how to respond to the new challenge. More
information is needed so law enforcement officials can fight back
effectively.

This series of editorials about heroin will try to explain how changes
in the drug's use and trafficking have made the drug much more
treacherous than before.

First of a series