MARKET FOR HEROIN ON THE RISE IN NORTHERN MICHIGAN

Experts Attribute Spike to Nationwide Explosion in Abuse Of
Prescription Painkillers Like OxyContin

PETOSKEY - Heroin? In northern Michigan?

While the general public may not even realize that the addictive drug
long has been available here, its use is on the rise, police and drug
treatment counselors say.

Officers with Straits Area Narcotics Enforcement are preparing to
charge an Emmet County woman with possession of heroin with intent to
deliver in Charlevoix County, after arresting her earlier this month
with 62 packets of the drug.

In Antrim County, Robert Hill, 47, was sentenced Monday to six months
in jail and 30 months probation after earlier pleading guilty to
possession of heroin.

Detective Lt. Ken Mills, unit commander of SANE, says the agency has
worked three heroin cases in the past month. SANE is the narcotics
enforcement agency for Emmet, Charlevoix, Cheboygan and Otsego
counties, as well as three counties in the Eastern Upper Peninsula

"We've been receiving information of a trend - there's a market up
here, and people are starting to sell it," he said.

That doesn't surprise Terry Warner, director of the detox program at
Dakoske Hall, a drug and alcohol treatment center in Traverse City.
Though the number of heroin addicts the center treats remains
relatively minuscule, regional heroin use appears to be rising, not
declining, he said.

"When we talk to heroin addicts, the few that we get almost joke about
how naive the northern Michigan public is about the availability and
use of heroin, especially in Traverse City," he said.

Detective Lt. Kip Belcher of the Traverse Narcotics Team, serving
seven counties in the Grand Traverse area, said the news is no
different there than in SANE's region.

"We have seen not what I would characterize as a significant increase,
but a noticeable increase, in the presence of heroin in the Grand
Traverse area as well," he said.

What could cause a surge in the use of such a highly addictive and
socially frowned-upon drug, after decades of declining use?

Mills and others attribute the heroin spike to the nationwide
explosion in abuse of synthetic opiates - prescription pain-killers
such as OxyContin, morphine, vicodin and methadone.

Mills said when OxyContin abuse became popular a few years ago, many
of its users were former heroin addicts. But doctors and pharmacies
have begun to clamp down on Oxy abuse, he said, including some local
drug stores that refuse to stock the painkillers for fear of repeated
robberies.

The net result - demand far outpacing supply. An addiction that is
extremely unpleasant and painful if not fed regularly could be fueling
the heroin trend, Mills said.

"They know heroin will give them a similar-type high," he
said.

It can actually be simpler to get an illegal drug on the streets than
attempt to abuse a legal, prescription drug, Warner said.

"If someone is inclined toward addiction, they may gravitate toward
what is easiest to abuse," he said. "High schoolers, for example.
Sometimes it is easier for kids to get marijuana than to get carded
trying to get alcohol."

The region's burgeoning problem with opiates is supported by recent
statistics from Northern Michigan Substance Abuse Services, an
umbrella organization that oversees and provides funding for treatment
centers serving 31 northern counties.

In the last quarter of 2002, the agency for the first time in recent
memory had more clients in treatment listing synthetic opiates as
their primary drug of addiction than marijuana. The painkillers are
now second only to alcohol.

Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey recently reported the theft of
17 oxycodone tablets, apparently by an employee. That case remains
under investigation. Mills said two Cheboygan County pharmacies were
recently burglarized. In one case, a man was arrested with OxyContin.
Investigation continues in the other break-in, which involved stolen
morphine, he said.

Drugs such as OxyContin can yield wonderful results for chronic pain
sufferers, Mills said. But the potential for addiction, abuse and
profit in illegal sales is high, he said. An 80 mg tablet of oxycodone
can fetch up to $65 on the streets - per pill - he said.

"Those on Medicaid can doctor-shop," he said. "Pain is hard to
diagnose. They will finally find a doctor willing to give them a
prescription of OxyContin, and once a month they'll get their 100
pills, pay their $1 co-pay or whatever, and stand to make a great deal
of money."

While drugs like heroin and crack cocaine evoke an immediate reaction
in most people, opiates such as OxyContin don't often do the same,
Mills said. Like alcohol, because prescription painkillers are legal,
they don't carry quite the same social stigma, he said.

"It presents a unique problem for the medical community and the law
enforcement community," he said. "A lot of our property crimes, our
break-ins and burglaries, can be traced back to people feeling a need
to fuel their addiction to these synthetic opiates."

Mills said he plans to work with local hospitals, doctors and
pharmacists, to brainstorm on ideas on how to impact the problem.

One area that must not be ignored is treatment, said Terry Newton,
executive director of Harbor Hall, a Petoskey drug and alcohol
treatment center.

"In times of budget crunches, treatment gets cut a lot," he said.
"It's kind of penny-wise and pound-foolish. Every penny spent on
treatment takes away $7 spent on other burdens in our system - prison
costs, the costs of crime."