Pubdate: Sat, 17 Nov 2001
Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO)
Copyright: 2001 Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.denver-rmn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371
Authors: Robert Sanchez and Lynn Bartels
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?132 (Heroin Overdose)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

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."
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MAP posted-by: Josh