AVAILABILITY OF HEROIN IN VALLEY SHOCKS POLICE

Even police officers are astonished to learn just how easy it is to acquire
heroin in their towns.

Detective Lt. Ronald Zellers of the New Kensington Police Department
thought cocaine was the biggest problem on the streets of his city.

He admits now he was wrong.

In preparation for his speech at the Alle-Kiski Valley Drug Summit on
Wednesday night, he went out the night before to talk to his criminal
informants about what they were seeing on the street.

"To my surprise, two of them told me the supply of cocaine is pretty low,"
Zellers said. "But you can get heroin off any dealer and it's cheaper than
crack."

According to U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, the Pittsburgh area is a
major recipient of heroin coming in from cities all over the country.

And once it arrives in Pittsburgh, it rapidly is distributed to surrounding
neighborhoods.

At Wednesday's summit, Buchanan and other law enforcement personnel
presented the audience with the basic facts on heroin and other drugs
available to teens.

Heroin is an opium-based depressant often imported from South America,
especially from Colombia.

Buchanan said a heroin rush causes a feeling of tranquillity.
Physiologically, breathing, heart rate and brain activity all slow down.

Often, users begin by snorting heroin in the powdered form because they
assume sniffing the drug is less addictive than injecting it.

However, people often are hooked after the first use. They soon switch to
shooting heroin into their veins because the high is quicker and cheaper,
Buchanan said.

Heroin often is purchased in a small, plastic stamp bag. One bag is worth
about $10 to $20 and contains two to three hits of heroin.

A first-time user may only need a bag per day, but addicts soon escalate to
using $100 to $200 worth of drugs per day simply to avoid getting ill.

Once addicted, heroin users rarely experience a euphoric high - they need
to use to keep from going into withdrawal.

Heroin withdrawal involves symptoms similar to a severe flu: vomiting,
diarrhea, headaches and body aches.

"They say it's like a knife twisting into their stomachs," said Dr. Neil
Capretto, medical director at Gateway Rehabilitation Center.

Other drugs of particular concern in western Pennsylvania are Ecstasy and
OxyContin.

Ecstasy is a popular party drug taken at all-night dances called raves.
Since it's a stimulant, Ecstasy often is taken to help party- goers stay awake.

Buchanan said the drug goes for about $20 to $30 per pill.

OxyContin is a highly addictive, legal pain killer that is increasingly
misused.

Capretto said one OxyContin pill has the power of about 16 Percocet pills,
a more commonly prescribed painkiller. And abusers often take more than one
OxyContin pill at a time.

OxyContin is often crushed and snorted, because that disrupts the drug's
time-release formula. Used in this form, it got the name "hillbilly heroin"
because of its powerful effect.

Those using Ecstasy and OxyContin often switch to heroin because it's cheaper.

"For a third of the cost, you can use heroin instead of OxyContin,"
Capretto said.

Westmoreland County Detective Tony Marcocci explained the difference
between casual drug use and heroin use.

"You can use casual drugs, like marijuana and cocaine today and not touch
it for a week," Marcocci said. "But once someone uses heroin, their body
will crave it. They use it every day."