HEROIN DEATHS STUN THE SUBURBS

Two Students Among Eight Who Have Died In Past Three Months In
Arapahoe, Douglas

A wave of heroin overdose deaths has surged through Arapahoe and
Douglas counties, devastating families, stunning authorities and
providing the clearest indication yet that the inner-city drug is
making a major new push into the suburbs. Even more worrisome to
officials, two high school students are among the eight who died from
heroin overdoses recorded in the past three months.

Police say dealers may be targeting Highlands Ranch and southern
Arapahoe County because many teens there can afford the $20 to $25
for a nugget of heroin.

"Heroin is becoming the drug of choice out here," said Terry Higgins,
father of one of the dead students, Austin Higgins, 17, of Highlands
Ranch. "It's to the point where we might as well line up the hearses
because it'll continue to happen unless people wake up."

A 19-year-old Douglas County resident is suspected of selling the
heroin that killed Higgins and Elliot Wallace, 17, of Lone Tree.
Police said the investigation continues.

Arapahoe County coroner Michael Dobersen was startled when he tallied
the heroin-related deaths his office has handled since August. At
first, he thought there might be two or three. He found seven.

Even though most of the deaths involve adults with a history of
multiple drug use, Dobersen said the number indicates that the south
metro area has a problem.

Elaine Spahn is grieving over the death of her brother, Dave Collins,
39, who was found dead in his Littleton apartment Oct. 27. He died
from an accidental overdose of heroin and alcohol.

By all accounts he didn't use heroin much. Spahn didn't know her
brother used it at all.

"We're all so naive here in Littleton," she said. "We think this is
small-town America. We think of apple pie and Western Welcome Week."

The two students from Douglas County who died attended Highlands
Ranch High School before transferring to alternative schools.

David Smucker, assistant principal at Highland Ranch High School,
said the school has worked closely with the sheriff's office since
the deaths. He said the two students' overdoses "touched" the
Highlands Ranch community.

Smucker said the large number of deaths -- which he'd been unaware of
- -- makes it apparent that heroin use is a community problem.

Austin Higgins was found dead Sept. 9 on the couch in his bedroom,
with two syringes on a table next to his body. His twin brother,
Jacob, watched as their father performed mouth-to-mouth on the boy.

Elliot Wallace, 17, of Lone Tree died Aug. 26 at a party in Littleton
after smoking a rock of heroin with newly-made friends. He had a
reputation for saying "no" to alcohol and preaching about the dangers
of cigarette smoking.

"Really, there is no place you can live because there's no magic
wonderland," said Wallace's mother, Sandi. "You can still do
everything for your kids and have bad things happen."

Arapahoe County sheriff's Sgt. Bob Dale was one of the first officers
on the scene at Wallace's death. In recent weeks, he's responded to
three fatal heroin overdoses, and two calls where four people
survived their brush with the drug.

Before the recent rash, Dale's last call to a heroin overdose
occurred at Fiddler's Green -- more than five years ago.

"When I think of heroin now, I'm not thinking of it as a drug only
for the down-and-out or homeless or junkie," he said.

Commander Lynn Spears of the South Metro Drug Task Force said heroin
traditionally is viewed as an inner-city drug.

But Denver is reporting that the number of its heroin-related deaths
in the last three months is below average.

Police suspect that the dealers targeting teen-agers are buying
"black tar" heroin shipped from Mexico to Denver's gangs. From there
it goes to suburban dealers, who are suspected of distributing it at
high school parties.

"Now it's out here," Spears said. "The kids start smoking it on
weekends, and then they're hooked. They want their fix, and only the
dealer out here can give it to them.

"It's a profitable business in the suburbs."

Spears speculated that the heroin sold to the two high school
students who overdosed might have been too potent, above the usual 25
to 28 percent purity that is normally ingested.

Suburban teen-age heroin users are smoking, rather than injecting,
the drug, Spears said.

"They're naive because they think it'll be safer, more like crack.
They think the needles are the things that'll kill you," he said.

Arapahoe County prosecutor Brian Sugioka, who handles drug cases,
said a small pocket of teens in the two counties are "very heavily
addicted and involved" in the drug, which is beginning to spread into
the general suburban high school population.

"It's not that we value the lives of wealthy kids more than
lower-middle-class ones, but we're seeing (heroin) use increase in a
population where it hasn't been before," he said. "That's scary."

Sugioka this year has prosecuted or advised police on 15 heroin cases.

"That's definitely a lot," he said. "Last October (2000), it was meth
and ecstasy. Then, six months ago, heroin became highly visible."

Harl Hargett is the executive director of Lost and Found Inc., a drug
treatment center based in Wheat Ridge. Higgins, one of the students
who died, spent much of his summer in out-patient counseling sessions
and in-patient treatment at the company's Morrison-area facility.

"I don't know if this is the point where heroin becomes critically
available or if it's just a blurp on the screen," he said.

"This generation is at a crossroads."