GOVERNORS GET SOBERING NEWS ON NEW ENGLAND DRUG USE

BOSTON -- Heroin demand in the region is so strong that traffickers now
skip their traditional delivery route through New York City and head
straight for New England.

Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Karen Tandy delivered that news
Wednesday to five of the six New England governors who met at Faneuil Hall
to discuss the region's drug problems, which have quietly worsened in
recent years.

"This is an issue that disappeared a little bit," Rhode Island Gov. Don
Carcieri said.

Outside the spotlight, dependence on illegal drugs in New England has grown
to be highest in the nation, according to the U.S. Office of Drug Control
Policy. Heroin use, especially among young people, is of particular
concern, selling for as little as $4 per bag and marketed in colorful logos
to appeal to kids.

"This region has placed a national face on this heroin issue," Tandy told
the governors. "It is a big business. You might as well be sitting at the
border of Colombia in this Northeast region."

In Massachusetts, the rate of heroin users seeking treatment is three times
the national average. Heroin-related deaths in Connecticut increased
seven-fold, to 107, between 1997 and 2001, the drug office said.

Maine's 90 reported drug-related deaths in 2001 was nearly triple the
number from four years earlier.

Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, a Republican, said Congress and the White
House are not taking the problem seriously. The president's proposed $600
million for treatment is too low, and has stalled in Congress, he said.

Meanwhile, Bush has proposed spending $87 billion on Iraq, Rowland said.

"We're debating nickels and dimes for the treatment of millions and
millions of American citizens who are dying everyday and every hour, yet
we'll spend billions and billions of dollars (on Iraq). ... It has to have
the same sense of urgency as the war in Iraq."

Rowland said he's come to the conclusion that "we can't put a dent in the
supply." The only solution, he said is "treatment, treatment, and more
treatment."

"We have to put this on the front burner," he said. "It's not there. Many
of us think it is. It's not; not even close yet, not until some of our
friends' children begin to die."

U.S. drug czar John Walters said drug testing in schools would be an
effective solution. He said such testing should be to help kids get
treatment, not punish them.

"This is a tool that will make a difference," Walters said. "It's time has
come."

School-based drug testing is legal, though few districts conduct widespread
testing. The Bush administration made $2 million in grants available this
year to help local districts adopt the testing, and has proposed $8 million
for next year, he said.

"If you don't start using drugs, cigarettes, or alcohol in your teenage
years you're unlikely to abuse later on," Walters said, adding that teens
feel less peer pressure to experiment if their classmates are clean.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, and Maine Gov. John Baldacci,
a Democrat, said they haven't formed an opinion on school-based drug testing.

Vermont has recently approved funds for treatment centers and plans to help
convicts stay clean when they get out of jail, Gov. James Douglas said. The
public in general, however, has a "widespread aversion to methadone" use to
treat recovering heroin addicts, he said.

Tandy, the DEA chief, said she has no answer to why New England's drug use,
especially heroin, is increasing.

High level heroin traffickers are transporting drugs directly to New
England and are marketing heroin directly to children, Tandy said.

"Colombian traffickers have created what is in effect a franchise marketing
system," Tandy said.

Heroin purity nationwide is 57 percent, while purity in Bridgeport, Conn.,
and Portland, Maine, has reached 90 percent, she said.

New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson did not attend the summit.