NDIC: COCAINE THREAT GROWING

Cocaine poses the "leading drug threat in the United States," far
outpacing heroin, a new federal report shows.

In fact, the document prepared by Johnstown-based National Drug
Intelligence Center ranks heroin fourth on a list of nationwide
concerns -- behind methamphetamine and marijuana.

But the report also notes that heroin continues to cause acute
problems in the Northeastern U.S., where there are "strong and
lucrative markets" for the drug.

Pennsylvania, including Cambria and Somerset counties, is no
exception.

"Heroin is our No. 1 problem," said Detective Jason Hunter, Somerset
County Drug Task Force coordinator.

NDIC's 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment includes information from
more than 3,000 state and local law-enforcement agencies across the
country. It makes a clear case for cocaine being the most-pervasive
drug problem.

The report says 41 percent of those agencies "identify powder cocaine
or crack as the greatest drug threat in their area, a higher
percentage than for any other drug."

Within Johnstown's city limits, police Chief Craig Foust casts an
identical vote.

He said cocaine "really came into prominence in our area when crack
cocaine became available" in the 1980s. And it remains his
department's biggest concern.

"What we deal with is primarily crack," Foust said.

The NDIC report divides the country into nine regions. Law enforcement
officials in the Mid-Atlantic area, which includes Pennsylvania,
ranked cocaine as their greatest threat.

However, the Mid-Atlantic's heroin concerns ranked second-highest of
all the regions. Only New England was higher.

The report says 25 percent of law enforcement officials in three
regions -- the Mid-Atlantic, New York/New Jersey and New England --
say heroin "is the greatest drug threat in their areas, compared with
4 percent in the rest of the country."

Also, 2006 data show that heroin-related drug-treatment admissions in
those same three regions "outnumbered heroin admissions for all other
regions combined," the document said.

That's not a major revelation for state police Sgt. Anthony DeLuca,
who is in charge of a drug-interdiction program on the Pennsylvania
Turnpike.

DeLuca, who formerly commanded Somerset's turnpike barracks and now is
in charge of the New Stanton barracks, has become accustomed to
finding large quantities of heroin on the toll road.

"It's moved from a city drug to a rural drug," DeLuca
said.

"You have every walk of life, you have all types of people doing
heroin," he said. "And it's all ages."

The drug has made local headlines several times recently:

Earlier this month, a Pittsburgh man who had been part of the largest
heroin bust in Cambria County history received a 30-year prison
sentence in U.S. District Court in Johnstown.

Authorities said Clifford B. Williams' operation at one point was
dealing about $40,000 worth of heroin weekly.

In November, state police arrested four Pittsburgh
men

on the turnpike in Somerset County after allegedly finding 2,000 stamp
bags of heroin in their Chevrolet Tahoe.

The drugs had an estimated street value of $80,000.

And in October, a Cambria County drug sweep netted an Ebensburg man
who allegedly had been peddling heroin valued at $1,000 each day.

The NDIC assessment says the problem could get worse as a growing
number of prescription narcotics abusers decide to switch to heroin.

"Many abusers of prescription opiates such as OxyContin, Percocet and
Vicodin eventually begin abusing heroin because it is typically
cheaper and easier to obtain, and it provides a more intense high,"
the report says.

Hunter has seen that trend first-hand, saying that when OxyContin
became popular locally, heroin "really took off in Somerset County."

Foust also noted the connection.

"Heroin kind of ebbs and flows, depending on the availability of
prescription drugs," he said.

In addition to tracking cocaine and heroin trends, the NDIC report
takes an in-depth look at other drug problems.

Some of its conclusions apply locally, and some do
not:

Pharmaceutical abuse "is very high" in the U.S., and users illegally
acquire those drugs using methods including doctor shopping, forged
prescriptions, theft and purchases from "rogue Internet pharmacies,"
the document says.

The report also notes the growing presence of gangs in
prescription-drug distribution -- something local officials have not
experienced.

While Hunter ranks prescription-drug abuse as Somerset County's
second-biggest problem, he said officials still are "seeing a lot of
thefts from grandma and grandpa's medicine cabinet."

Marijuana remains prominent, and in a more powerful form: NDIC
officials said the "average potency of marijuana increased in 2007 to
the highest levels ever recorded."

Foust said his officers have seen the price of pot
increase.

"It's a combination of supply and demand and the quality of the drug,"
he said.

Nationwide, methamphetamine continues to cause major problems for law
enforcement, ranking as the second-greatest drug threat in the U.S.

Survey results show that meth is by far the biggest concern in the
Pacific, West Central and Southwest regions.

The NDIC report notes "increasing domestic production of the
drug."

But so far, methamphetamine is barely an issue in the Northeastern
United States. Local officials, with their limited resources already
stretched by drugs and drug-related crime, are hoping the meth threat
stays dormant here.

"(Methamphetamine) tends to be present in rural areas," Foust said.
"And it puts a tremendous burden on smaller law-enforcement agencies."