$4 A DEATH: HEROIN IN THE SUBURBS

He was in his early 30s, a heroin user for years. Then one day this
fall, members of his family found him lying in bed, dead from an overdose.

"He used it one time too many," Quincy police Sgt. Pat Glynn
said.

The man was the sixth killed by the drug in Quincy in four months and
the 13th this year - all of them casualties of cheaper, purer heroin
that law enforcement officials say is more plentiful than ever on the
South Shore.

"It's no longer an urban problem," Norfolk County District Attorney
William Keating said. "It's a spreading problem, and I don't think
people are aware of the extent."

As The Patriot Ledger reported last year in its "Drug Wars" series,
every other big-city drug can be found in the area's small towns and
commuter suburbs - cocaine, high-powered pot, the amphetamine Ecstasy
and other "club drugs."

Now it's heroin that has Keating, Plymouth County District Attorney
Tim Cruz and other officials and investigators most concerned.

"We've never seen a surge like this," Glynn said.

Neatly packaged in small, sealed plastic triangles or in bags
decorated with frogs and cartoon characters, the drug is turning up
for as little as $4 a hit, a tenth of the price less than a decade
ago.

The Colombian powder hits much harder these days: It's often 70
percent pure, strong enough to be smoked or snorted rather than
injected - and strong enough to kill.

Quincy's drug unit has recorded 42 heroin overdoses this year, a third
more than last year.

Stoughton residents got their own grim reminder of the drug's wider
reach last week when a pediatrician turned in his 19-year-old son for
heroin possession.

Hanover Police Chief Paul Hayes knows communities like his aren't
immune, either. His officers haven't arrested any dealers or reported
an overdose, "but we know there are users in town," he said.

At the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's Boston regional office, agent
Anthony Pettigrew shares that view.

"Larger cities have a more visible problem," he said. "But it does
exist in the suburbs."

In Quincy, the largest city on the South Shore, the drug unit has made
about 200 arrests so far this year, about the same as last year.

Across New England, the federal drug agency is conducting 28 percent
more heroin investigations this year. Arrests are up 6 percent, to
more than 1,200, Pettigrew said.

Keating said it is also troubling that the heroin being sold in New
England appears to be cheaper and more potent than the drug addicts
are getting in other parts of the U.S.

Pettigrew couldn't confirm that, but did say that heroin as pure as 90
percent has been found in the region. The national average is 57 percent.

As local heroin use spreads, more addicts are checking into
drug-treatment centers or being ordered there by the courts.

While heroin-treatment admissions south of Boston are below the state
average, the number has been rising, according to the state Department
of Public Health.

Admissions for heroin are up 25 percent in Quincy over the past three
years.

A Patriot Ledger analysis of 214 drug-related arrests handled by
district courts in Quincy, Hingham and Plymouth since Jan. 1 found
that 79 percent of defendants under age 30 were charged with
possession or sale of marijuana.

Older defendants were far more likely to face cocaine and prescription
pill charges. The heroin cases were split down the middle, with 51
percent of defendants under 30 and 49 percent over 30.

Abuse of the powerful painkiller OxyContin, heroin's chemical cousin,
continues to grow, especially among teenagers and those in their early
20s.

"It has snowballed," Plymouth County narcotics detective Sgt. Tony
Thomas said. If the trend continues, "Oxy will eventually compete
with cocaine and heroin."

In Hull, police are investigating the deaths of three people from
possible overdoses of OxyContin and other prescription drugs in one
week in September.

Pharmacy robberies of OxyContin have declined, largely because many
pharmacists have quit stocking large quantities. Even so, Glynn said,
"There's a lot of it out on the street."

More than a dozen pharmacy robberies have been reported on the South
Shore this year. In one case the robber got away with more than 700
tablets. But Glynn and other investigators say OxyContin is now more
often supplied by people who get legitimate prescriptions filled and
then sell them for $20 to $40 a pill.

Thomas said Ecstasy, the rave-party amphetamine, appears to be
limited, compared to heroin and other narcotics.

"A few pills here, a few there," he said.

Other "club drugs" and date-rape drugs like GHB are even rarer,
according to police chiefs and investigators. But police have started
keeping an eye out for them, along with a still-obscure crop of
hallucinogens such as "Magic Mint."

"There are a lot of new drugs out there that no one has a clue
about," Hanover chief Hayes said. "But the kids do."

Thomas, Glynn and their fellow detectives would like to pursue Ecstasy
and OxyContin deals more than they do. They can kill the same as
heroin. But there aren't enough investigators, and not enough hours in
the day, so they focus on heroin and cocaine.

"You have to go where you get the most bang for your buck," Thomas
said.

For the Plymouth County narcotics team, that most often means
Brockton, where detectives and city police arrested seven and seized
$1.1 million worth of cocaine in a bust this spring.

Quincy detective Glynn said the drug unit there is holding the line
against dealers and their buyers, at least for now.

Based on an informal barometer of "search time" - how long it takes
users to make a buy, and how often they're forced to buy out of town -
"we're above the curve," Glynn said.

Keating is trying to get ahead of the problem, too. In the near future
he plans to bring in law-enforcement consultants to help plan a more
aggressive counterattack.

"We're racing against the clock," he said.