Pubdate: Sun, 13 Jul 2003
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2003 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact:  http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: Pauline Arrillaga, Associated Press 
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?132 (Heroin Overdose)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

RURAL NEW MEXICO IS JUST ONE REGION KNOWN FOR ADDICTION

CHIMAYO, N.M. - It has been described as a place caught between heaven
and hell: a sacred valley whose soil is said to have healing power,
and yet a place of so much pain for so many people.

People like Renee Martinez, 21, in an oversize T-shirt shrouding her
track marks. She has been using heroin for three years, cocaine about
half that time.

On a sunny morning, the addict and a friend scout the parking lot of a
methadone clinic in Rio Arriba County, hustling cash for their daily
shot of the drug that cuts the craving for heroin. Renee says she is
trying to quit, then acknowledges shooting up two days earlier.

For years, the county of 40,000 people in north-central New Mexico has
had the highest drug-overdose rate in the nation; 20 people died last
year alone.

In Chimayo, where only 3,000 people live, the Drug Enforcement
Administration reported 85 deaths between 1995 and 1998 attributed to
high-purity, black-tar heroin.

The plight is hardly unique.

About 16 million Americans use illegal drugs, according to the latest
National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Use has increased among
teen-agers and adults who abuse Ecstasy, marijuana, cocaine,
painkillers, tranquilizers and heroin.

Communities are feeling the effects. In Willimantic, Conn., police
scour the streets for heroin traffickers and prostitutes working to
finance their habit. In nearly a dozen Appalachian towns, methadone
clinics treat clients addicted to the painkiller OxyContin. In the
Midwest, police discover more methamphetamine labs every day: 2,725
last year in Missouri alone.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy wants to reduce
nationwide drug use by 25 percent over the next five years. Deputy
director Mary Ann Solberg acknowledges it's an ambitious goal.

"We know we don't have a prayer unless each community across this
country works with us hand in hand," she told 40 politicians,
treatment providers, retirees and recovered addicts at a meeting last
month in Rio Arriba County.

How it got this way

Most say Rio Arriba County's curse of addiction began after World War
II, when soldiers returned home to few jobs and little opportunity.
People turned first to alcohol. Then, after the Korean War, some
veterans came back addicted to pharmaceuticals. Then came heroin,
with increased production across the border in Mexico offering a
steady supply. By the 1980s, Rio Arriba was "fully blown," as one
recovered addict puts it.

Then, burglaries climbed as users broke into homes and businesses. And
the overdose deaths escalated -- from four in 1994 to 13 one year later.

In 1995, Chimayo newcomer Bruce Richardson attended his first
community meeting about crime. A few months later, the Chimayo Crime
Prevention Organization was born.

Through his committee, Richardson brought together a small cadre of
community leaders. They organized more meetings and marches.
Eventually, they grabbed the attention of the state and, finally, Congress.

National attention

In March 1999, Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico convened a
congressional field hearing in Rio Arriba County. Six months later,
armed with maps of drug dealers' homes plotted by Richardson's
committee, state police and federal agents descended on the county in
a raid that netted 31 heroin traffickers.

Along with the raids came new money for treatment and outreach -- more
than $10 million in state and federal dollars. The county is
renovating a 52-bed residential center. Meanwhile, disease-prevention
specialists are working to teach addicts how to use Narcan, a
substance that can reverse the effects of a heroin overdose.

Rio Arriba is far from heaven, but it's not quite the hell it once
was. There is hope here.

You could even catch a glimpse of it in the vacant eyes of Renee
Martinez the morning she scouted the methadone clinic parking lot for
enough cash to buy her dose. On that day, she got her money and
strolled out of the clinic with a grin.

Yet, to curtail the culture of addiction, the people of Rio Arriba say
they must address its underlying causes: the lack of jobs and
opportunity, their faltering faith in the future.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin