Series: Wasted Youth (Day 2 -- 4 Of 4)

EVERY COMMUNITY IS POISONED

Karina Angelopolus bolted from her car when she spotted the crashed
vehicle on Grove Street in Brockton, desperate to help the driver inside.

She grabbed the man's wrist -- his pulse was racing.

"He looked like a businessman," she said. "There was a tie on the
seat next to him. There was a suit jacket in the back seat."

Near him, on the car floor, was a needle with blood on it.

"I was never that close to a needle. I could have been stuck," she said.

Angelopolus had never met a heroin addict, but that day, while taking
her children to the doctor, she saw the face of the drug. Throughout
the region, people like her are discovering their lives intersecting
with heroin addicts in ways they never considered, and ways that
often put them at risk.

Lilia Shani of Taunton goes to a bank on Route 44 in Raynham that was
robbed by an addict. "You don't feel safe," she said.

"You don't know when something could happen. It's not just in the
city anymore."

Bob Curtis was working in his Avon store when he was robbed.

Barbara Wirzburger's Plymouth home was broken into twice -- and a
suspected heroin addict broke into another house on her street
earlier this year.

Mike Pimental's restaurant in Plymouth lost thousands of dollars
after, police say, a waitress stole cash to help pay for a
boyfriend's drug habit.

The drug is taking a toll on communities large and small.

In fact, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (nida.nih.gov)
estimates drug abuse costs Americans nearly $100 billion in lost
wages, reduced work productivity, health care, and crime, among other things.

Robberies tripled in Easton and nearly doubled in Abington since
2000, the bulk committed by drug addicts scrambling for cash to feed
their habits, police said.

Shoplifting cases in Brockton, Taunton and Kingston, which have major
malls, increased between 10 and 77 percent from 2005 to 2006.

"Everyone pays," said Curtis, owner of Avon Line Beer & Wine. "Even
the cleanest, nicest person has been affected by it and doesn't know
it. ... There's the insurance rate they are paying extra on."

There is also time spent by police investigating drug-related cases.

Easton police once spent two days investigating a reported kidnapping
of a 32-year-old drug-addicted man -- only to learn he faked the
abduction to get cash from his wealthy father.

"That is one example of the extent they will go to get money for
drugs," Easton Deputy Police Chief Allen Krajcik said.

"It gets a hold of them, and all they live for is to satisfy that craving."

But the price paid by a community can be more difficult to see.

"When parents realize the kid down the street, the kid they saw play
Little League, is now snorting heroin and shooting heroin, they feel
very threatened for their own well-being and the well-being of their
own children," Plymouth psychologist Mark Dunay said.

John Kironyo, owner of Prospect Market in Brockton, sees the faces of
young adults on the streets, struggling with addiction.

"They are from every little town you can imagine," he said. "Most of
the young users are no fools. They are college material. They are very smart."

Kironyo said he sees some sleeping in bushes and sees their families
scouring the streets, looking for them.

"To see how people get destroyed, to see how good people lose respect
for themselves, it is very sad," he said.

John Downing, owner of O'Duinann's bar in Taunton, said he has seen
how heroin can cripple young lives -- and has tried to help some
addicts get treatment.

"My personal, gut feeling is that our best answer is education and
control," he said.

Kironyo said people need to do something now.

"It is all our problem, and it is all our pain," he said. "Any of our
children can be victims."