CHEAP, DEADLY HEROIN LURES TEENS

Arrests, Overdose Deaths Up Dramatically; Hidden Effect On Families Seen

South Shore teenagers are using powerful heroin that costs less than a pack
of cigarettes and is so pure it can be snorted instead of injected, erasing
the back alley stigma that used to keep them away from the drug, law
enforcement officials say.

In the first three months of 2004, more teenagers were arrested for heroin
offenses on the South Shore than in all of 1998 and 1999 combined. Two
recent arrests for heroin possession involved middle school students.

''I can't think of an issue so obviously in front of us that we are not
dealing with,'' Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating said,
noting that state budget cuts have led to the closing of several treatment
facilities, including Faxon House in Quincy.

''It's not a situation of trying to get ahead of this. It's more a
realization that it is here and we better do everything we can,'' he said.

The problem has grown worse in recent years because of an influx of heroin
from South America that is selling for as little as $4 a bag and is readily
available to teenagers.

Police say many teenagers are becoming addicted to OxyContin, the powerful
prescription painkiller that sells on the streets for $40 to $80 a pill,
and then transitioning to heroin when they run out of money.

Police say heroin is also more powerful than before, leading to quicker
addiction and more overdose deaths. In Quincy, at least 13 people died from
overdoses in 2003.

Statewide, the number of opiate overdose deaths of people between the ages
of 15 and 24 more than tripled in a three-year span, surging from 17 in
1998 to 54 in 2001, according to the state Department of Public Health.
Most opiate overdoses were due to OxyContin and heroin use.

In Norfolk and Plymouth counties, arraignments of people under 21 on heroin
charges have steadily increased in recent years, reaching a total of 97
last year. The numbers are most striking in Norfolk County, where
arraignments on heroin charges increased from 19 in 1999 to 47 last year,
according to the office of the state probation commissioner.

This year, a review of Patriot Ledger archives and interviews with law
enforcement officials show, eight teenagers have been arrested on heroin
charges in local communities in the last three months.

Police say the statistics are a poor indication of the problem, which they
believe reaches much deeper. On the South Shore, they say, heroin is not so
much creating chaos in communities as it is quietly ravaging individual
lives and families.

The statistics on arrests for heroin possession and distribution do not
account for teenagers whose abuse goes unnoticed by parents and police; nor
do they account for robberies, petty thefts and violent crimes committed to
pay for drugs.

''We're seeing a lot of smash-and-grabs,'' said Weymouth police Lt. George
Greenwood. ''They'll throw a brick through the window of a store and then
they'll run right down the street and buy bags of heroin. You can follow it
all back to people who need a fix.''

In the whitewashed hallways of the Norfolk County House of Correction,
statistics do not tell the story of Michael Gavin, 22, and Michael
Gallagher, 25, two Quincy men serving sentences for drug-fueled crimes.

Both started using heroin as young men, both have been in and out of prison
and both have stolen, lied and become violent to support their habits. Both
men also say they want to quit the drug, only they don't know if they can.

During an interview this week, Gavin, a cleancut young man who used to work
construction, held his arms in the air to show long, dark tracks streaking
his forearms. Those are the physical wounds of a heroin habit that started
in his Quincy neighborhood when he was 18.

He says the mental wounds - the guilt and shame over his crimes - are far
worse.

''I carjacked a lady,'' Gavin said. ''I was withdrawing from heroin. I
didn't want to walk anymore. I was sweating. I grabbed her, ripped her out
of the car and took the keys.''

''Police chased me down Dorchester Avenue,'' he continued. '' I was going
70 miles an hour. I almost killed a few people, I guess. I don't know. I
was out of my mind.''

When the memory began to come back, intermingling with the hallucinations
and numbing pain of heroin withdrawal, Gavin said, he tried to commit
suicide in Bridgewater State Hospital.

''I've been through a lot in the last four years and I was so dope sick I
wanted to die,'' he said. ''People get so deep into this addiction that
they want to kill themselves.''

Gavin is awaiting trial in Suffolk Superior Court on a slew of charges,
including carjacking and armed robbery. While he spoke, Gallagher and two
other inmates nodded at the familiarity of his story.

They acknowledged the long odds against recovering from heroin addiction,
which counselors say is statistically as remote as overcoming leukemia.

The inmates said the hold of the drug is stronger than any inspiration life
can muster. They told of how it lasted through their families' threats of
abandonment; through the deaths of friends who died of overdoses; through
jail sentences; and even the birth of children.

In local communities, addiction is beginning to catch on with young people,
and it is not starting within the stereotypical confines of broken-down
neighborhoods in urban communities. It is starting, police say, in
middle-class suburban neighborhoods and schools.

During the last five years, arrests for heroin offenses among teenagers
have spread across the South Shore. While arrest numbers tend to increase
with community size and proximity to Boston - Quincy and Weymouth had the
most, nine each - the problem has reached smaller communities as well.

In 2003, Rockland teens accounted for the most arrests.

Last week, Keating said two middle school students were arrested for heroin
possession at a South Shore middle school - he would not name the town for
fear of identifying the students in their communities.

In Weymouth, Adam Dalton, 18, and Jenna Cimino, 17, were arrested Tuesday
on charges of possession of heroin and a hypodermic needle. Officers on
stakeout arrested them as part of an investigation into heroin sales.

When Christina Mate was arrested in Stoughton on March 26, all she was
trying to do was get back into school.

According to a police report, an assistant principal opened the door for
her, then saw the 17-year-old honors student and star swimmer hide
something in her pants.

It was a heroin-filled syringe and a bag of brown powder.

Stoughton Police Chief Manuel Cachopa wouldn't talk about Mate's arrest; he
said he doesn't want to cause her family any more grief.

But he said the arrest will more than likely come up at a seminar on heroin
for parents being hosted by the Norfolk County district attorney's office
on April 26.

''I don't see how we're going to neglect it,'' Cachopa said. ''Heroin is
very cheap. It's $3 to $4 a hit.''

''Listen, heroin is very plentiful,'' he said. ''It's all over the place.''

* Staff writer John Zaremba contributed to this story.