HEROIN GRIPPING SUBURBS

Research Shows Drug Increasing Its Hold On Whites; Pot Use Also Gaining

Heroin addiction is increasingly becoming a suburban problem among younger
white users in Colorado, according to the state's latest report on drug
abuse.

"I think that is one of the scariest emerging problems around," said Bruce
Mendelson, researcher for the Alcohol and Drug Abuse division of the Human
Resources Department.

Of those admitted for treatment, the percentage from the suburbs climbed to
almost 70 percent between 1992 and 2000, while the percent of whites treated
rose to two thirds, the division's study found.

But that wasn't the only drug that worried state officials.

The report also found that:

* Marijuana continues to be a major problem, especially among teens, as
society has taken a lackadaisical attitude toward its use. Almost 40 percent
of all admissions to drug rehab centers are for marijuana.

* Powder cocaine is replacing crack cocaine as a drug of choice. Powder
cocaine prices have remained stagnant and users feel there is less risk of
arrest and punishment than if they smoke crack cocaine, the report said.

* Methamphetamine use continues to plague the state with law enforcement
increasingly spending more time shutting down labs.

Heroin use and deaths from overdoses in Denver have always concerned state
officials, but now, like an epidemic, it is spreading to the suburbs,
Mendelson said.

"I don't care where it is, it should always be a concern," he said. "But
when it starts breaking out of one area and moving to another, it's a
concern."

The wave of heroin use hit home in the southern suburbs last fall when eight
people, including two high school students, died from overdoses during a
three-month period.

Mendelson's report found that between 1992 and 2000, the percentages of
addicts entering treatment living outside Denver rose from 54 percent to 69
percent.

The percent of white addicts increased from 48 percent to 66 percent and the
percentage under 35 years of age rose from 35 percent to 40 percent. The
percent of users 25 and younger has grown even more dramatically, rising
from 10 percent of addicts entering treatment facilities in 1995 to 18
percent in 2000.

Figures for heroin deaths last year were not available. In 2000, 147 people
died from overdoses in Colorado, up slightly from 142 in 1999, but down from
the peak of 182 in 1998, the report said.

Eugene Strauber, vice president of Cenikor, a Lakewood-based treatment
program, said the ramifications of the spread of heroin use are enormous.

"This should be a wake-up call for authorities to find out where those drugs
are coming into the community," Strauber said.

The Colorado trend sounds eerily like what happened in New York City decades
ago when heroin spread, he said.

"Once proliferation in the middle class around heroin use became really big,
the problem got just completely out of control," Strauber said. "A lot more
money started going into it. You had a lot more buyers, a lot more addicts."

Mendelson said suburban youth are smoking or inhaling heroin instead of
injecting because they mistakenly think it is a safer method.

"These kids are saying 'I'm not going to get addicted if I smoke,' " he
said. "They're dead wrong. It doesn't matter how you take it, you're still
going to get addicted."

Stable prices and the availability of smaller packages of heroin, costing as
little as $10, have helped the drug proliferate, especially among younger
users, he said.

Steve Karkos, group supervisor for the Drug Enforcement Administration's
Denver office, said prices haven't changed much in about 10 years.

Karkos said much of the heroin is being distributed by Mexican groups who
funnel it through the West Coast before it arrives in Colorado.

The report also found a switch from crack cocaine to powder cocaine during
the last half of the decade.

Many users believe the penalties for inhaling powder cocaine aren't as stiff
as getting caught smoking crack, the report said.

"There was this perception that 'If I use powder it's going to be less of a
problem if I get caught than if I get caught with crack cocaine,' "
Mendelson said.

Karkos said the DEA has noticed the same trend in Colorado.

The percent of blacks admitted for treatment for cocaine fell by half to 21
percent between 1995 and 2001, while the percentage of whites and Hispanics
rose, the report found.

Overall, cocaine addicts account for a diminishing percentage of clients
admitted for treatment, falling from 31 percent in 1995 to 21.3 percent in
the first half of 2001, the report found.

Methamphetamine, or speed, abuse in Colorado is on the rise as law
enforcement officials continue to scramble to shut down makeshift labs.

The problem is particularly acute in the northern suburbs, where labs used
to manufacture the stimulant have proliferated, said Lt. Lori Moriarty of
the North Metro Drug Task Force.

The number of labs seized by the task force has risen from 24 in 1999 to 49
in 2000 to 75 last year. During the first week of this year, officers busted
five labs, equaling seizures for all of January 2001, Moriarty said.

"That's really what is draining us is these meth labs," she said. "It's
really taking a toll on the task force." She said users can transport the
ingredients and equipment in their cars to remote areas, manufacture it for
four hours and then pack up and move on to a new location.

Finally, the report warned about the continued high use of marijuana in the
state. Two years ago, a national study found that Colorado had the most
pervasive use of marijuana as measured by the percent of residents using it
in the previous 30 days.

Mendelson blamed a lackadaisical attitude by the public toward its
widespread use, especially among baby boomers exposed to it during their
college years.

Marijuana users constitute the biggest group entering treatment centers,
accounting for about 40 percent of the clientele by the first half of 2001,
the report found. "There is almost this feeling that it is not a big deal
anymore," he said. "It's sort of like 'Thank God they are not using
methamphetamine or cocaine.' "