Pubdate: Fri, 18 May 2001
Source: Herald, The (WA)
Copyright: 2001 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

HEROIN USE EXPANDING IN SUBURBS, STUDY SHOWS

ATLANTA -- A study suggests that heroin, a longtime scourge of Ameica's 
inner cities, is becoming a suburban and rural problem.

The number of city-dwelling heroin users treated each year in New Jersey 
dropped by half dur-ing the 1990s, while the number treated from suburban 
and rural areas nearly tripled, the govern-ment reported Thursday.

Analysts said people in outlying areas may be less aware than city dwellers 
of diseases linked to heroin use, such as AIDS mid hepatitis.

"It's less of a personal experi-ence for them," said Dr. Anna Kline, a 
researcher at the New Jersey Health Department. They haven't seen their 
relatives and friends dying of AIDS."

New Jersey addiction centers treated 1817 suburban and rural heroin users 
in 1999, up from 691 in 1993. During the same period, the number of urban 
users treat-ed annually dropped from 2,018 to 1,076.

The study suggested that a new generation of heroin users may prefer 
injecting the drung to snortng it, exposing themselves to a broad mnge of 
blood-borne diseases.

Nearly half of the 18- to 25- year-old heroin users treated in New Iersey 
in 1999 reported in-jecting the drug, up from 22 per-cent in 1993.

The change mystifies officials. Most of the young addicts were in-jecting 
high-purity heroin, Tradi-tionally, purer heroin is snorted.

Also Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 
needle-exchange programs became widely popu-lar in the late 1990s as a way 
to prevent AlDS.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager