HEROIN PLAGUE TOPIC OF BOSTON SUMMIT

New England's six governors are set to convene tomorrow morning in Boston
for an unprecedented anti-drug summit with the White House drug czar and
numerous experts to confront the region's alarming heroin habit.

New England's streets have been flooded with potent South American smack
selling for less than $10 a bag, and heroin addicts now account for more
than half of all people admitted to drug and alcohol treatment programs in
Massachusetts, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"It's a problem here. There's high-quality heroin on the streets throughout
Massachusetts," said Special Agent Anthony Pettigree of the U.S. Drug Enfo
rcement Agency's Boston office. "We are out there trying to combat it." His
boss, DEA Chief Karen Tandy, will be among the panel of drug and addiction
experts speaking at the three-hour summit. National Office of Drug Control
Policy spokesman Brian Blake said the format of the first-of-its-kind
meeting will be similar to a congressional hearing with experts giving
testimony to the governors and taking their questions. "The governors can
learn from it. It's just an educational opportunity for them. It just gives
them a chance to learn and to coordinate their efforts," Blake said.

New England has the highest drug use among young adults of any region in
the country, according to the latest National Household Survey on Drug
Abuse. In that survey, more than 18 percent of all New England respondents
between the ages of 18 and 25 had used an illicit drug in the past month.
The only states outside of New England with such a high percentage of drug
users were Alaska, Colorado, Delaware and Oregon.

Heroin controlled by Colombian and Dominican drug traffickers poses the
most serious drug threat in the Bay State, according to a report issued
last month by the federal drug czar John Walters. A new form of smack so
potent it can be sniffed instead of shot up is on the streets of Boston
selling for as little as $4 a dose, according to the report.

"We are making some strides," said Pettigrew, the DEA agent. DEA agents
assigned to the Boston office, whose workload now ranges from a quarter to
a third with heroin cases, collared 21 people in a May heroin sweep. The
office's mobile enforcement team arrested 22 people and seized 88 grams of
heroin in Framingham late last year.

"We're out there combating it," Pettigrew said. Tomorrow's summit also will
delve into other drug issues including the latest scientific research on
medicinal marijuana use and efforts to increase the region's drug treatment
capacity.