HEROIN GAINING GROUND AMONG TEENS

Smoking or sniffing heroin, rather than injecting it, is the way dealers
are marketing the drug to hook a younger generation.

At the same time, the cost of heroin is going down, the quality is going
up, and increased social acceptance of it within teen peer groups means use
of the highly addictive drug is on the rise, says a doctor who operates a
methadone clinic in Kitchener.

"There is more permission for young people to be using it than ever
before," said Toronto-based doctor Jeff Daiter.

"Chasing the dragon" or heating powdered heroin on foil and inhaling the
vapours through rolled-up bills doesn't look that different from smoking a
cigarette or a marijuana joint, he said, so "it isn't a big leap for high
school students, who are risk-takers."

Naive children as young as 12 convince themselves it's safe to experiment
by smoking heroin because it seems less addictive than sticking a needle in
their arm, Daiter said.

But, while it doesn't carry the risk of contracting HIV or hepatitis C from
dirty needles, smoking heroin is actually more addictive and often leads to
injecting the drug as users build up a tolerance.

After only two or three hits in one week, "experimenters" will have
difficulty stopping, Daiter said. After using heroin daily for a week, a
teen will be hooked.

"It's hard to get off because it delivers everything it promises," he said.
"There is a tremendous euphoria and a tremendous sense of well-being. It's
mood-altering and it can change everything about you, like (giving you)
more confidence."

Withdrawal symptoms, including nausea, cramps and diarrhea, can begin hours
after the last hit. New users don't recognize what's happening to them, but
will already see heroin as the only thing that will make them feel better.

A heroin habit can cost between $50 and $200 a day, with one hit selling
locally for $80 to $120. Teens might buy a gram and sell a piece of it at
an inflated price, usually to a friend, to pay for their own addiction.

"Two per cent of high school students are using heroin, but the swing is
upwards," Daiter said. "Drugs can infiltrate into a school very easily."

Daiter, with 16 other doctors, runs seven methadone clinics in Ontario. He
opened an office in Waterloo Region two years ago after a group of
Baden-area teens, ages 18 to 20, went to his Woodbridge clinic for help
with their heroin addiction.

"I don't think I'd ever have come to Kitchener had those young people not
come to me," Daiter said. "They were a group of highly motivated individuals."

Three months ago, Daiter had dinner with six of the Baden kids. They were
celebrating being off methadone, and three were getting ready to start college.

"A young person probably has a better chance at recovery, they've been
bitten less by the addiction," Daiter said. "It's early in the cycle, they
still have relationships and they may not have a (criminal) record."

At age 38, Daiter calls himself the "travelling methadone doctor." He
visits the Kitchener clinic and about 40 of its 200 patients every Thursday.

His clinic has a waiting list of heroin addicts. Patients must go in every
day to provide a supervised urine sample to ensure they're clean of drugs
before they get a drink of methadone. Methadone, a synthetic form of
heroin, blocks the effects of other opiates for up to 24 hours.

"At the very least, it's substitution therapy -- substituting one addiction
for another," Daiter said.

ADVANTAGES

But methadone has advantages: it's long-acting, non-euphoric and dispensed
by a doctor, compared to heroin which is short-acting, mood-altering and
dispensed by dealers.

Sadly, a popular dealing ground for heroin is the parking lot of Daiter's
clinic. Clinic surveillance cameras watch over the lot, but addicts are
easy targets. The lot is littered with empty Gravol packages and
prescription drug bottles.

For some, the temptation is too great, Daiter said. "It's hard when you've
lost everything and you have one thing that can make you feel so good."

One addict travels a few blocks to the clinic on a garden tractor for his
daily dose of methadone because he can't get a driver's licence.

Daiter has seen it all, from young experimenters to 20-year addicts, and
the tragedy of addiction.

"You're better off to have cancer or HIV than an addiction," he said. "I've
been in houses where people have died in front of me because of an
overdose. I've seen people in bathrooms, dead, with needles in their arms."

But scare tactics and horror stories aren't enough to keep teens from
experimenting with heroin.

"Set these kids up in Grade 6 and 7 when they're still saying 'no' to drugs
and still influenced by their parents," Daiter said. "It's much easier to
educate young, rather then re-educating."

Drug awareness should be part of the elementary curriculum, Daiter said.
The drawback is that teachers don't know enough about what addiction is
really like and what it does to the body or effective strategies for saying
"no."

HEROIN FACTS

Heroin is processed from morphine, a naturally occurring substance
extracted from the seedpod of the Asian poppy plant. Street names include
smack, H, skag, junk and dope.

It usually appears as a white or brown powder or a dark brown sticky
tar-like substance.

Effects

Tolerance develops through regular heroin use. Then, increasing amounts of
heroin are needed to achieve the same intensity of effect. As higher doses
are used, physical dependence and addiction develop.

The body quickly adapts to the presence of heroin and withdrawal symptoms
can occur within a few hours of use. Symptoms include drug craving,
restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold
flashes and kicking movements.

Risks include fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion, collapsed veins and
infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis from the use of dirty
needles.