HEROIN INFLUX SPURS NE EPIDEMIC

Heroin dealers who target children as young as 12 with free samples and drug
packets decorated with cartoon characters have spawned an epidemic of
illicit heroin use in Massachusetts and New England, which now has the
highest rate of illegal drug use among teenagers in the nation.

"The extent of the problem has snuck up on us," Governor Mitt Romney said
yesterday at a meeting in Faneuil Hall with the region's governors and White
House drug czar John Walters. "The war on drugs hasn't been won."

The six New England states, taken together, have the highest rate of illegal
drug use of any region in the country, according to the latest survey by the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Massachusetts has the
highest drug use rate among the New England states, the survey found.

More than half of admissions for drug treatment programs in the Commonwealth
are for heroin addiction, which is three times the national average, Romney
said. In the last three years, Massachusetts heroin deaths have increased 76
percent, Romney said.

Emergency room visits in Massachusetts due to heroin use have increased 60
percent every year since 1998, according to Janice F. Kauffman, a nurse and
assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Last month, a former Westford high school teacher was indicted on charges of
selling heroin to her teenage students and helping them shoot up in her
apartment. In another highly publicized case in Connecticut, State Police
arrested a dealer with 300 bags of heroin less than 1,500 feet from an
elementary school.

Extremely pure and cheap Colombian heroin, imported directly to Boston, has
fueled the regional epidemic, which Romney and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino
described as a destabilizing public health and social crisis.

Dealers give children two bags of free heroin for every eight they sell in
an effort to get them hooked, Menino said. Colombian cocaine cartels, which
started showering the Massachusetts market with cheap heroin in the late
1990s, have employed sophisticated marketing tools to target young users,
including brightly colored envelopes and brand logos like Batman, cartoon
frogs, dynamite, and the Playboy bunny.

"At $4 a bag, heroin is cheaper than cigarettes," Menino said.

According to the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health, done in
2000, 6 percent of Massachusetts residents ages 12 to 17 reported illicit
drug dependence or abuse, the highest in New England, compared with 5.6
percent nationally. Within the New England states overall, 4.1 percent of
children ages 12 to 17 were addicted to drugs, compared with 3.2 percent
nationwide.

Walters said that drug testing in schools could provide "a silver bullet" to
identify young drug users early and direct them toward treatment. "Testing
must be confidential," Walters said. "It must be used to help, not to
punish."

School-based drug testing is not illegal, but few states and communities
have adopted it, even though $2 million in federal funding is available.
Romney said he had not yet formed an opinion on the issue.

Karen Tandy, administrator of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said
drug traffickers have found ways to transport heroin directly from Colombia
and Mexico to Boston, bypassing the traditional entry point of New York
City. "You might as well be sitting on the border of Colombia in this
Northeast region," Tandy said. A bag of heroin, which a decade ago cost $40,
currently retails on the street for $4. And the drug is now so pure that
users can snort it, increasing its appeal for people who once avoided heroin
because of the stigma associated with injecting the drug. "Purity has
enabled people to shake the back-alley stigma of injecting heroin," Tandy
said.

In New Bedford, street heroin has reached 90 percent purity, as compared
with an average purity nationwide of 57 percent, according to the DEA.

Boston police have seen an upswing of people injecting heroin, Commissioner
Paul Evans said. "Heroin has surpassed cocaine as the drug of choice," he
said.

Drug deaths in Boston, mostly from heroin, jumped 76 percent from 1998 to
2001, with the greatest number of victims in South Boston and the South End,
according to the city's most recent health report. Overdoses and
drug-related suicides claimed 88 lives that year.

At yesterday's meeting, Walters reiterated the White House's goal to
increase spending for drug treatment programs by $200 million a year, while
Romney vowed to bolster the state's drug addiction programs, which in the
last two years have been hurt by budget cuts.

Last year, 67,414 people were admitted to drug or alcohol treatment programs
in the state, down from 75,436 in 2001. Treatment for heroin addiction
accounted for more than half the admissions, 35,739.

In 2001, there were 687 federal drug arrests in Massachusetts and 16,528
drug arrests on state charges. So far this year, the DEA has prosecuted 50
heroin cases in Boston, compared with 40 during all of last year. Only
Connecticut, among the New England states, had a similar number of drug
arrests.

Although medical professionals and law enforcement officers have seen
indications of swelling heroin use in the region for years, the extent of
drug use has taken New England political leaders by surprise, they admitted
at yesterday's meeting.

"I think we've been missing the boat in some ways," Romney said yesterday.

Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland, once a strong proponent of targeting
drug dealers, blasted a government approach that has ignored prevention and
treatment.

"We're facing a crisis situation that requires our leaders to have a sense
of urgency," Rowland said. "It has to have the same sense of urgency as the
war in Iraq, stopping smoking in the workplace, and putting on seatbelts."

According to the DEA, Colombian and Dominican gangs have locked up heroin
distribution in urban centers, especially Boston, New Bedford, Worcester,
Springfield, Lawrence, and Lowell. But local police are limited in their
ability to chase high-level drug lords, according to Evans.

"Local law enforcement only deals with street-level drug abuse," Evans said.
"We need more federal resources and assistance to bring to account those who
profit the most from the distribution of heroin."

With the US drug market estimated at $65 billion, Tandy said, "It is a very
big business."

The DEA has established special groups to track drug money and is trying to
push cases as high up the distribution chain as possible, Tandy said,
working closely with the Colombian government to shut down drug gangs at the
source.

But the governors all expressed support for increased treatment programs,
saying that the White House's request for $200 million for treatment was
just a start.

"I believe we can't put a dent in supply," Rowland said. "The drugs are here
because the demand is here. There are 6 million people who need treatment
while only 1 million are getting treatment. We're debating nickels and dimes
for American people who are dying, while we spend $87 billion for the
reconstruction of Iraq."