DRUGS OF CHOICE CYCLE IN AND OUT OF POPULARITY

Some drugs come and go like fashion trends. Others are steady and ever-present.

"A lot of things are cyclical, we see decreases in LSD for while, then an
upswing. It's the same with heroin," said Dean Guaneli, the state's chief
assistant attorney general. "Alcohol is consistent and marijuana is
consistent, too."

In Juneau, changes in drug usage are reflected in the growing popularity of
OxyContin, a powerful prescription narcotic, and methamphetamine, a
powerful stimulant.

OxyContin was introduced about five years ago to treat people in chronic
pain. Abusers generally clean off the time-release coating on the pills and
crush them so they can snort - inhale - or inject the powder.

In the Lower 48, the growing use of methamphetamine, also known as meth,
crystal or crank, seems to be cutting into the popularity of cocaine. That
doesn't appear to be the case in Alaska and Juneau. Steve Hernandez, who
supervises the Juneau Police Department's drug unit, says cocaine usage in
Juneau is at a level comparable to the past few years.

"But we are seeing a drastic increase in methamphetamines in Southeast," he
said. "We're seeing a lot of availability and use of meth on top of coke use."

Teenagers say marijuana and alcohol are the most popular drugs for their
age group, but said they occasionally see cocaine and ecstasy, a stimulant.
Police officer Paul Comolli, the Juneau-Douglas High School liaison
officer, has not confiscated cocaine or crack, a smokeable form of cocaine,
from any school-age kids in the two and a half years he's been on the job
there. He said that although kids say there's an increase in ecstasy, he
has not confiscated any.

"Far and away the thing that rips our town apart, same as every town across
the country, is alcohol," said emergency room physician Ken Brown. "I can
come in at night for a shift and be guaranteed to see three or four people
totally incapacitated from alcohol."

Aside from alcohol, the problems Brown sees most often are narcotic-related
overdoses and abuses, usually involving the prescription pain medications
hydrocodone and oxycodone (often marketed under the brand name OxyContin)
and the related but less-potent painkillers Percocet and Vicodan.

"Far and away most people taking pain medication have legitimate
conditions, but there are definitely some people that get involved in the
drugs, for maybe a legitimate initial reason and then persist in trying to
get the drugs for not-so-legitimate a reason. We try to be very cautious
about the number of narcotics we give out."

Brown said he knows of one drug overdose death caused by narcotic medicine
this year in Juneau.

"Cocaine is probably the third most common drug of abuse," he said. "It's
fairly prevalent, and definitely we see methamphetamine - it's not an
uncommon drug to see."

Users come into the emergency room concerned about chest pains and heart
attack symptoms. Brown said meth and coke have similar symptoms and side
effects. They cause high blood pressure, which can lead to possible
ruptures of blood vessels and strokes. Both drugs can induce psychosis, and
concerned family members sometimes will bring in a user who is confused and
disoriented.

He said the emergency room staff deals with people abusing drugs on a
fairly constant basis.

"I don't think a day goes by that we don't have a drug-related problem in
Juneau," he said.

Professionals at the Juneau Recovery Hospital treat a steady stream of
alcoholics and drug addicts. The vast majority of patients - about 90
percent - are in for alcohol. The rest are in for drug treatment, either
illegal drugs or abuse of prescription drugs. The percentage varies, and in
some cases patients are combining drugs and alcohol.

"The biggest increase we've see is OxyContin. There's a real major
increase," said Stephen Sundby, director of the recovery hospital. "Cocaine
is pretty consistent for us. It's not falling off or dropping and it's not
increasing."

The recovery hospital has inpatient and outpatient programs and also
provides a short-term, one-to three-day detox program. Last year 433 people
went through detox. This year's numbers are comparable. So far this year
501 people have used the recovery hospital's "sleep-off" room, a safe place
where they are monitored but not admitted.

Last year 246 people went through the hospital's rehabilitation program.
The program has been expanded this year to include people from throughout
the state; 313 people had used the facility through September.

About one of every six felony cases prosecuted by the district attorney's
office in Juneau in the past two years was a drug offense - growing,
selling drugs or possessing even small amounts of drugs such as cocaine or
heroin, said Dean Guaneli, chief assistant attorney general.

Possession of up to one pound of marijuana is a misdemeanor. A pound or
more of marijuana, or any indication of intent to sell, raises the stakes
to the felony level. There were 62 misdemeanor cases involving drugs in the
past two years.

The district attorney's office focuses on cases involving violent crime.
Rapes, homicides and assaults make up about a third of the 361 felony cases
the office has prosecuted in the past two years. Another third of the
felonies are property crimes such as burglaries. The remaining cases ranged
from weapons offenses to felony drunken driving.

Guaneli said there were 76 cases where people were charged with a drug
offense but it was overshadowed by a more serious charge, such as a burglar
caught with pot in possession.

"If someone was pulled over for drunk driving and had a small amount of
pot, that would be considered to be a drunk-driving case. If it was coke
(and drunken driving), it would be a drug case," he said.

Guaneli said statewide, crimes committed under the influence of alcohol are
more violent than crimes committed under influence of other drugs,
particularly in rural Alaska. Virtually every violent crime in rural Alaska
has a connection with alcohol, he said.

"Drug crimes have more a tendency to be property offenses," he said. "A
good percentage of the property offenses are drug-related - burglaries,
thefts, shoplifting and embezzlement. Not so much in rural, but in urban
Alaska."

Guaneli said it's difficult to get an accurate picture of drugs. Drug cases
require a big investment of police resources. He said murders always are
reported and always investigated, but a drug crime such as a sale doesn't
generate a victim who calls the police the way a theft does.

"We can say we have a handful of homicide cases, and not more. And that's
all of them," he said. "Drugs are different. People don't report a drug sale.

"We find when troopers get a big task force together and go into a town and
do a big undercover investigation, they can double the number of drug cases
overnight. If they devote resources, they get tons more.

"My sense is this is not an overwhelming problem in Juneau. Police devote
sufficient resources, but if they did a big undercover investigation, they
could generate a lot more cases. That's what we find everywhere in the state."

Guaneli said Juneau does not have big, sophisticated drug organizations as
do Fairbanks and Anchorage.

"You may get one or two organizers, with followers who sell for them," he
said. "It's also cyclical, and we have had people come through and try to
set up organizations."

Matt Felix has worked in drug programs for 30 years for the state and the
city of Juneau. He now heads up the local chapter of the National Council
on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. He said users, recovering users and
others in the drug community talk to him about trends in Juneau.

Felix said there tends to be a seasonal increase in drug and alcohol use in
the fall and winter. He's seeing an increase in the use of OxyContin and
prescription drugs this fall.

Felix said alcohol is the drug of choice in Southeast Alaska. Southeast is
the region with the highest level of alcohol consumption in the state,
according to tax revenues. Per capita, Southeast is one of the
hardest-drinking areas of the nation.

"There are episodic outbreaks of drugs, but drinking is consistent, steady
and heavy," he said.

Felix said alcohol-related domestic violence, property crimes, assaults and
health issues far outweigh the problems created by drugs in Juneau.

"Alcohol is the 180,000-pound elephant in the closet and nobody wants to
talk about it. It's an epidemic," he said. "The alcohol problem is so
overwhelming in this region it makes the other problems look lightweight."