OLD SCOURGE DOESN'T DISCRIMINATE

Heroin overdoses have taken the lives of seven people in Beverly over the
past two years, and sent dozens more to the emergency room.

The statistics are staggering, say police.

In the past month, 28 people have been arrested on a variety of drug
charges. Through this effort, police say several alleged heroin, Oxycontin
and cocaine dealers on Pond Street were shut down. Local detectives
arrested four purported dealers there. One of the dealers was reportedly
responsible for selling heroin to a 50-year-old woman who overdosed on
Knowlton Street. Although she survived, police charged her with possession
of heroin.

In 2003, the most recent year in which complete information is available,
there were 20 cases of reported heroin overdoes in the city. Of those,
three were fatal: a 48-year-old man on Bartlett Street died in January of
that year; a 50-year-old man of Railroad Avenue overdosed and died in May;
and a 37-year-old female passed away from use of the deadly drug on Rantoul
Street in June.

There were plenty of nonfatal overdose victims in 2003, as well, said
police. They ranged in age from 20 to 50, 13 males and seven females.

Heroin users weren't found in one specific neighborhood either. One was in
Centerville, two were from Ryal Side, eight occurred downtown, six were in
Gloucester Crossing and one police found at the Hannah Port Motel.

In 2004, police said there were four fatal overdoses, three males and one
female, who were all white, but were much younger victims of the drug than
those who perished the year before. Detective Tom Nolan said they ranged in
age from 20 to 27.

Despite the immediacy of the numbers, police know the drug is not new here.

New Battle in Age-Old War

A Jan. 5, 1970 Beverly Times headline proclaimed, "Heroin is big business
in Beverly." In a full-page feature, the paper referred to the city by the
drug dealers nickname for it "Scag Town."

"In Scag town tonight, the Mafia may drop more than a thousand bags of
heroin a mile away from the site of [Mayor Herbert Grimes'] inauguration
dinner. Scag is heroin," the paper wrote. "Scag Town is Beverly."

Local detectives say there's a world of difference between yesterday's
battle and today's war against the opiate.

Richard A. Ganey, the senior member of Beverly's three-man drug detective
team, said the job has changed over the years. He has seen the evolution of
drug addiction with the introduction of Oxycontin which, like heroin, is a
highly addictive opiate.

While he said there are older addicts who fit the stereotype - skinny and
haggard-looking with no money and even less motivation, there is a new
addict - a younger addict. These drug users - otherwise ordinary people who
don't fit the stereotype - were drawn in mostly by Oxycontin.

"You see a lot of normal families that you know have someone who is hooked
on it," Ganey said.

While cocaine and marijuana continue to be the most popular drugs in
Beverly, Oxycontin has opened the door to heroin use for many teenage
users, said Beverly police Detective Sgt. Michael Cassola.

"They think it's OK because it's a pill," Nolan said.

It's also expensive. The most popular-size pill, 80 milligrams, goes for
about $80 on the street. So users often turn to a cheaper, but similar drug
- - heroin.

Mobile Business

Ganey said it's also more difficult for police to track down dealers.
Dealers have graduated from public pay phones to cell phones and Nextel phones.

"It's harder because everything is on the go now," he said.

And a lot of the deals are simply drive-bys - a buyer gets picked up by a
dealer, they drive around the block and return. It's a done deal.

"Route 128 is like a pipeline," Nolan said. Drugs headed from so-called
"source cities" like Lowell and Lawrence move through North Shore
communities to and from the large seaport community of Gloucester by way of
the highway.

In fact, many addicts who make that trip can't wait until they get home,
Cassola said. They stop at the rest area between exits 18 and 19 in Beverly.

It's "OD central," Cassola said.

Just last week, they caught a Rockport man for possession of cocaine when
they spotted him and a female passenger from Gloucester in their Jeep.

In addition to drugs, detectives said they have confiscated large knives,
swords and tasers in their arrests. They arrested a homeless man who had
robbed a store in Gloucester and was hoping to make his getaway by catching
a Boston-bound train in Beverly.

Beverly is not a source city, Nolan said. "People from Beverly, their
dealers are from out of town," he said.

That's why the detectives are part of the North Shore Drug Task Force, (see
related story), which includes officers from Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody,
Salem and Swampscott. They also work with the Cape Ann Drug Task Force, a
partnership that has brought federal drug charges against more than a dozen
people for heroin and Oxycontin distribution in recent months.

It's that cooperation that earned the detectives praise in an outside
consultant's recently completed review of the Police Department. Describing
their work as "highly effective," the consultant noted the detectives are
very active, work well with their counterparts in neighboring communities
and have aggressively pursued drug cases in the city.

In discussing solutions to what the district attorney has labeled an
epidemic, participants at last week's opiate summit at Merrimack College
debated whether hospitals should be required to report drug overdoses. Some
medical professionals said it would be an invasion of privacy and would
deter victims from seeking medical attention.

Cassola said he favors the reporting.

"We might not be aware that it has happened," he said. "(Hospitals) should
tell us."

Cassola said he counts on information from the patrol officers as well as
calls from concerned citizens. Both often lead to drug investigations.