HEROIN: TALIBAN'S CHEMICAL WARFARE

THE terrorist attack on the United States has entered its third and possibly
most deadly phase.

Taliban leaders have unleashed a store of opium from Afghanistan, and the
State Department expects it to arrive here in the form of a new, purer form
of heroin.

The heroin isn't just a way to get money for terrorism. It is terrorism. We
should strike back with everything we've got. On a national level that means
interdiction and prosecution. On a local level it means prevention and
treatment.

The state and The City are about to embark on a wave of budget cutting. Drug
treatment should not be one of the items that is sacrificed to balance the
books. It should be enhanced as a form of civil defense.

The new drug, called "Heroin No. 4," is 80 percent pure, so it can be
snorted or smoked, not just injected. That could make the drug more popular
with people who are afraid of needles.

It could make it easier for junkies to get a hold of the stuff on the
street. The cheaper the drug, health experts say, the more chance there is
for overdosing.

San Francisco already has a horrible heroin problem. The City ranks No. 3 in
the nation per capita for heroin addiction. One recent report estimates that
there are as many as 17,000 intravenous drug users here. Heroin accounts for
one-third of all premature deaths in The City.

Those statistics could get worse if the illegal drug market is flooded with
the new heroin supply.

MAKE no mistake: This is chemical warfare. Addiction to heroin can lead to
injury or death. The abscess clinic at San Francisco General Hospital
already sees hundreds of patients a year whose injection sites have gone
untreated.

The hospital's burden has already grown with the explosion in the
availability of black tar heroin. It could get even worse if the new
formulation becomes popular here.

Of the two white powders, anthrax may be more poisonous, but heroin is more
insidious. Addiction makes it difficult to stanch the flow to
all-too-willing victims.

Fortunately, The City treats heroin addiction as a medical problem first and
a crime a distant second. But that is not enough.

Faced with this terrorist attack, The City should focus more money and
attention on the heroin problem, and reduce the waiting list for treatment,
with at least a thousand names on it at any one time.

The Sate Department believes that this new supply of potent opium could
reach our shores by winter or early spring. We have some time to prepare,
but let's mobilize our troops now.