ADDICTION TAKES POTTER, OTHERS

Two months before a heroin overdose took his life, Holliston's Michael
Potter told his sister a "healthy fear" of needles had kept him away
from the drug for nearly 20 years.

Then, at age 38, he moved to Cape Cod and met a woman who shared his
addiction to drugs and alcohol.

"That's when he started shooting up," said Kathy Bouchard of
Bellingham, Potter's sister.

The heroin addiction put an end to Potter's lifelong struggle with
drugs and alcohol by killing the 44-year-old man in August 2001.

Along the way, Potter contracted HIV and Hepatitis C, fought to stay
sober and spoke candidly to hundreds of students in colleges and
schools statewide about HIV/AIDS and the dangers related to drugs and
alcohol.

"It's just a vicious cycle so you say to your kids, 'You don't ever
want to go down that road because it's just a vicious cycle and you
know where it's going to go,'" said Bouchard.

The fatal path Potter took is landing more and more Milford-Franklin
area residents in the hospital.

The number of people hospitalized for opiate-related illnesses in the
Milford-Franklin area rose by more than 110 percent between fiscal
1998 and 2001, according to data released by the state Department of
Public Health.

Since 1998, opiate overdoses have killed 21 people from the 12 towns
that make up the region, including 10 from Milford, three from
Franklin and another three from Northbridge, state DPH figures show.

Also, of the 1,192 local men and women who checked into drug treatment
programs from July 2001 to June 2002, the state DPH's Bureau of
Substance Abuse says 416 used heroin.

Meanwhile, the number of arrests made for illegal possession of heroin
are not as high because police focus more on cracking down on dealers
and rehabilitating users.

Between 1998 and 2002, Milford Police filed 20 charges for illegal
heroin possession.

Uxbridge Police have 23 illegal heroin possession charges on the books
for the same four-year period. Franklin Police brought 27 illegal
heroin possession charges to court, and Blackstone Police filed nine
charges between 1998 and 2002.

Hospitalizations vs. Arrests

Unlike marijuana and cocaine users, heroin addicts are tougher to bust
because the way the drug is taken -- and its small packaging -- forces
users to be more secretive about their abuse, law enforcement
officials said.

Also, those who are convicted are usually sentenced to complete a
rehabilitation program.

"A bag of heroin is no bigger than a silver dollar. You can walk
around with a silver dollar in your pocket for days and the police are
not going to know about it," said David Traub, spokesman for Norfolk
County District Attorney William Keating.

To be charged with illegal possession of heroin, police have to find
the substance on the individual and then send the drug to state police
for testing.

"Simply because they used the drug isn't enough to charge them," said
Milford Police Chief Thomas J. O'Loughlin.

If a user goes to a treatment facility for assistance, prosecutors are
hesitant to pursue cases because they usually don't have enough proof.

"Really simple, with a possession of (heroin), they are not going to
go into state prison. Treatment is the objective," said Traub.

Heroin can be injected, smoked or snorted. Some users cook heroin in a
spoon to liquify it so it can be injected.

Most illicit heroin is a powder, varying in color from white to brown
depending on the amount of impurities or additives.

"Black tar" is another form of heroin which is commonly found in the
western and southwestern U.S. It is produced in Mexico and is sticky
like roofing tar or hard like coal, according to the Office of
National Drug Control Policy.

In many cases, most people busted for heroin possession cross paths
with police because of non-drug complaints, like a motor vehicle stop.

For example, a call for a domestic violence complaint recently landed
a Milford man behind bars for heroin possession and other drug and
assault charges.

Michael T. Ostaski of Prospect Heights was sentenced on Jan. 17 to six
months in jail after police caught him last October carrying a hockey
bag bulging with heroin, cocaine, marijuana and $6,500 in cash.

Police caught up with Ostaski after receiving a complaint he had
assaulted his girlfriend with a steak knife.

Other heroin users run into trouble with the law in desperate attempts
to feed their habits.

Shoplifting, stolen checks, robbery and prostitution are some of the
crimes addicts commit to feed their habits.

Earlier this month, Sherri Harrison of Natick was nabbed for a pair of
bank robberies on the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border that police
say were fueled by her heroin addiction.

"There's a lot of crimes that just piggyback. After a while, their
life is their drug," said State Trooper Sgt. Dennis Brooks, who works
for Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley's narcotics division.

The Onset of Addiction

Bellingham's Bouchard said her brother's battle with drugs began when
he tried alcohol for the first time in sixth grade.

"That led to pot, which led to cocaine," said Bouchard. "The drugs
were more powerful than anything."

Potter's life became a series of derailed fresh starts.

He landed great jobs in the computer field but lost them. He completed
Marine Corps training and then went AWOL and landed in prison.
Whenever Potter headed out to Framingham, his family worried because
that's where his "drug friends" lived.

"He wasn't a violent person. He wouldn't hurt another person. He hurt
himself," Bouchard said. "With his personality, the drugs are the last
thing he should have ever touched."

The occasions Potter would beat his addiction stay with Bouchard like
small victories.

One night when the brother and sister were in high school, Bouchard,
in tears, begged Potter to flush his drugs down the toilet.

"So I want to see you flush them down the toilet," Bouchard said she
told her brother.

"And he did," Bouchard said.

Police say the road to addiction for most users is paved by a cat-and-
mouse game chasing that very first high.

Intravenous injection gives the greatest intensity and quickest onset
of the initial rush that users experience, according to the Office of
National Drug Control Policy.

Those users experience the rush within seven to eight seconds while
the euphoric feeling usually hits those who sniffed or smoked the drug
within 10 to 15 minutes.

After the initial high, users may experience alternating feelings of
alertness and drowsiness and slowed breathing.

Brooks likened a user's first experience with heroin to the sensation
of taking a warm shower.

"As high as you are, you can never get there again. The second, the
third time you just keep chasing that monkey," said Brooks.

Addiction Grows

More potent drugs, cheap prices and increased availability are some of
the reasons more and more people are caught chasing the heroin "monkey."

Statewide, 42 percent of people who entered state substance abuse
treatment programs in fiscal 2002 used heroin. That's up from 19
percent in 1992.

"It's out there more. It's better. It's cheaper," said Northbridge
Police Chief Thomas Melia, who is also chairman of the Blackstone
Valley Regional Drug Task Force.

Heroin that once cost $35 now sells for $6 with the same potency
level, Melia said.

The way people use heroin is also bringing the drug to a younger
audience.

"The problem for the young kids is that they're snorting for the first
time," Brooks said. "They think there's not a negative stigma to it if
they snort it."

A December 2002 survey of students nationwide by the National
Institute on Drug Abuse at the University of Michigan shows 1.6
percent of eighth-graders, 1.8 percent of 10th-graders and 1.7 percent
of 12th-graders reported using heroin at least once during their lifetimes.

"It's alarming," Brooks said.

Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart
lining and valves, abscesses and liver disease, according to the
National Drug Control Policy office.

They also run the risk of contracting HIV, and hepatitis B and
C.

Of those 1,187 people in the central part of the state living with
HIV/AIDS, 43 percent were infected while injecting drugs, according to
state figures.

Beating the Addiction

Potter battled for years to kick his drug habit. He joined support
groups, sought treatment, was trained to talk to others about
HIV/AIDS, moved home with his parents and touched the lives of
hundreds of students.

But when a Framingham "drug friend" took him out one day in August
2001, Potter never came home.

"He just couldn't believe in himself, could he?" a friend asked
Bouchard at her brother's wake.

For many heroin addicts, the hardest part of kicking their addiction
is getting out of the social circles that fuel their behavior.

"It's almost like they have to create a life that isn't imbedded in
the life of drug use," said Rosemarie Coelho, vice president of
Wayside Youth & Family Support Network.

Wayside offers outpatient treatment and support for heroin users at
their offices in Milford, Framingham, Marlborough and Waltham.

One term that makes Coelho cringe is "heroin addict."

"That's a delinquency term. They become a threat for us, a criminal,"
she said. "They are our neighbors, our brothers and sisters. These are
the people we know and love."

Even though Potter could never beat his addiction, his family finds
enormous comfort from the letters they received from students that
demonstrate how powerful his life was.

One letter, signed by Milford Middle School East teacher Jodi Sevatos
ends, "His memory will be with me always. Keep these letters with your
memories. Thank you so much for your wonderful son."