CHEAP HEROIN, COSTLY ADDICTION

Low-Cost Drug Feeds Growing Number of S. Shore Addicts

OxyContin is addictive and expensive.

Heroin is cheaper and available.

Both are fueling what police and health officials say is a steady rise
in addiction on the South Shore that is dangerous and in some cases
lethal.

"It's not like marijuana and cocaine," Marshfield Detective Jeff
Brennan said. "People you would never think would do drugs, if they
get prescribed (OxyContin) for a back problem, some of them get
hooked. They become junkies."

The numbers back him up:

. More than 3,300 people who said they lived on the South Shore
identified themselves as heroin users when they checked into drug
treatment programs in 2003. That's been going up an average of more
than 10 percent a year since 1995.

. In 1998, two people between 17 and 20 years old were arrested on the
South Shore for possession of heroin. That number was up to 17 last
year, according to a Patriot Ledger review of police and court records.

But it is the people, not the numbers, that tell the most frightening
story.

Stoughton police received a cell phone call last week from a pair of
teenage girls. Their 16-year-old friend had overdosed on heroin, and
the man who allegedly supplied her with the drug had abandoned the
three of them on the side of a road. Police said the girl was
unconscious and not breathing when officers got to the scene and
picked her up from a snow bank.

Joanne Peterson is a founder of Learn to Cope, a group affiliated with
the Norfolk County District Attorney's office. She learned that her
son was addicted to heroin two years ago when he was 19.

"He was at a party with friends and a mirror went around with
(heroin) lines on it," she said. "I noticed he drastically changed
in a very short period of time. Their look changes. Their voice
changes. They're up all night. They sleep all day. I didn't know what
it was. I knew whatever it was, was something bad.

"Unfortunately, heroin and OxyContin are not something you can
experiment with," Peterson said. "It's addictive. I don't think they
realize it will take their lives the way it does. They're dying everyday."

Growing Addiction

Those are not isolated cases. The problem has been growing on the
South Shore, particularly in smaller communities and especially in the
past five years.

State statistics gathered at drug treatment centers show heroin users
on the South Shore - once only a handful in smaller communities - now
number in the hundreds.

The rise in heroin and OxyContin use is straining police departments,
filling addiction treatment centers, and destroying families, experts
say.

"The amount of heroin that we have seen or are seeing is double what
we saw 10 years ago," Hanson Police Chief Edward F. Savage III said.
"I hesitate to speak for other communities, but what I'm seeing is an
increase in possession of heroin and ... ecstasy."

High Point Treatment Center, located in Plymouth and New Bedford,
offers substance abuse services to people all over Southeastern
Massachusetts.

"The trend over the last five years has definitely been upward,"
High Point Executive Director Daniel Mumbauer said of heroin use.

Young Users

"About 60 percent of folks we see coming into detox today say heroin
is their drug of choice," Mumbauer said. He said treatment centers
are seeing more admissions for OxyContin, too.

"They (OxyContin users) tend to be younger folks, 18 to 24. It tends
to be someone stealing (a prescription) from parents and experimenting
with it. The fear is experimenting with OxyContin is very expensive.
Then heroin is very cheap. So they go to heroin because of the
cheapness of it," Mumbauer said.

OxyContin and heroin are chemical cousins. OxyContin, a prescription
drug, is a synthetic opiate prescribed for pain management. It is
highly addictive and very expensive. A single pill typically costs $20
to $80 on the street, while a bag of heroin costs between $3 and $5.
Heroin is cheaper and more pure than it has ever been, making it a
good and cheap alternative for OxyContin addicts.

The state does not compile statistics on OxyContin addiction.

Savage, the Hanson police chief, said the users of heroin in his
community range in age from 18 to 25, and many are committing robbery
and burglary to feed their habits.

Savage said Hanson has not seen much OxyContin use yet, but Marshfield
police say their town and many other South Shore communities are
seeing an epidemic of OxyContin addiction.

Brennan, the Marshfield detective, said his department arrested a
20-year-old man last month for allegedly forcing a 13-year-old boy to
steal OxyContin from his mother. In October Marshfield police arrested
a 16-year-old boy at Marshfield High School for OxyContin possession.
In September they arrested two men, age 26 and 27, for armed robbery.
When they arrested them, police discovered 200 OxyContin pills in their home.

Brennan said heroin hasn't become a problem in Marshfield yet, but
knows there are people selling the drug in town.

Narcotics Numbers

The state Department of Public Health keeps statistics on admissions
to treatment centers, including what drugs people say they use.

According to those statistics, just 17 residents of the state
representative district that includes Hanover, Norwell and Rockland
admitted to using heroin in 1995.

By 2003 those communities had 105 heroin users.

In the district that includes Hanson, Pembroke and parts of Duxbury
and Halifax, the number climbed from 17 to 175 heroin users.

Numbers also climbed more than 40 percent among Quincy and Weymouth
residents. Additionally, there were 42 heroin overdoses in Quincy in
2003 alone.

Families Torn Apart

Experts say the upswing in heroin use and addiction is tearing
families apart.

Parents in Hanson and Marshfield have started support groups for
families coping with drug-addicted children.

Learn to Cope, the Norfolk County district attorney's group, helped
Peterson, but there were things the family had to do for itself.
Peterson said she got her son treatment for his addiction, paying $900
a week out of her own pocket because health insurance wouldn't cover
in-patient treatment.

"He's gotten a lot out of it," she said. "But it's a struggle. It's
a lifelong disease."

Martha, a Quincy woman, said her 22-year-old son has battled OxyContin
addiction for two years. She threw him out of her house at least
twice. It was the hardest decision she ever made.

"There were times when I hated my son," she said. "I was so angry
at him. Sometimes I would wish I wouldn't see him again. And then you
have these guilty feelings, that you're a failure as a parent."

She helped check him in to several addiction treatment centers, but he
would keep relapsing.

Martha's son has been in a Mississippi treatment center since late
August and will be released from the program soon. Martha is nervous
about him moving back to Massachusetts, where his problems began.

"... As hard as it is, I would rather my son be healthy and alive
than come back here and fall into the same pit," she said.