NEW JERSEY: ENTRY POINT FOR SMUGGLED DRUGS

New Jersey has the ignominious distinction of having street heroin
that is among the purest in the nation, according to Special Agent
Douglas S. Collier, a spokesman for the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration, with purity levels reaching as high as 72 percent.
This is largely because the state is home to large ports and a major
airport, making it a direct entry point for drugs smuggled from South
America.

Federal agents seized 300 pounds of heroin in the state in 2007 -- the
most recent year for which data was available -- compared with 139
pounds in 2006. In 2008, the D.E.A. also found that the rate of heroin
use among the state's 18- to 25-year-olds was more than twice the
national average.

Although government agencies are striving to address the problem --
one of their efforts is an education and training package for drug
prevention educators called "Heroin: The Ride That Never Ends" --
usage continues to climb. At rehabilitation centers, about 40 percent
of people cited heroin as their main addiction in the past two years,
according to Raquel Jeffers, the state's director of addiction services.

Jim Curtin, the executive director of Daytop New Jersey, an adolescent
substance abuse and treatment center in Mendham, said he had seen the
number of teenagers seeking treatment for heroin abuse double in the
past year.

"For years and decades, heroin was the last thing you did," Mr. Curtin
said. "But this generation thinks differently."