Pubdate: Sat, 10 Apr 2004
Source: The Patriot Ledger (MA)
Copyright: 2004 The Patriot Ledger
Contact:  http://ledger.southofboston.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1619
Author: Casey Ross

CHEAP, DEADLY HEROIN LURES TEENS

Arrests, Overdose Deaths Up Dramatically; Hidden Effect On Families Seen

South Shore teenagers are using powerful heroin that costs less than a pack 
of cigarettes and is so pure it can be snorted instead of injected, erasing 
the back alley stigma that used to keep them away from the drug, law 
enforcement officials say.

In the first three months of 2004, more teenagers were arrested for heroin 
offenses on the South Shore than in all of 1998 and 1999 combined. Two 
recent arrests for heroin possession involved middle school students.

''I can't think of an issue so obviously in front of us that we are not 
dealing with,'' Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating said, 
noting that state budget cuts have led to the closing of several treatment 
facilities, including Faxon House in Quincy.

''It's not a situation of trying to get ahead of this. It's more a 
realization that it is here and we better do everything we can,'' he said.

The problem has grown worse in recent years because of an influx of heroin 
from South America that is selling for as little as $4 a bag and is readily 
available to teenagers.

Police say many teenagers are becoming addicted to OxyContin, the powerful 
prescription painkiller that sells on the streets for $40 to $80 a pill, 
and then transitioning to heroin when they run out of money.

Police say heroin is also more powerful than before, leading to quicker 
addiction and more overdose deaths. In Quincy, at least 13 people died from 
overdoses in 2003.

Statewide, the number of opiate overdose deaths of people between the ages 
of 15 and 24 more than tripled in a three-year span, surging from 17 in 
1998 to 54 in 2001, according to the state Department of Public Health. 
Most opiate overdoses were due to OxyContin and heroin use.

In Norfolk and Plymouth counties, arraignments of people under 21 on heroin 
charges have steadily increased in recent years, reaching a total of 97 
last year. The numbers are most striking in Norfolk County, where 
arraignments on heroin charges increased from 19 in 1999 to 47 last year, 
according to the office of the state probation commissioner.

This year, a review of Patriot Ledger archives and interviews with law 
enforcement officials show, eight teenagers have been arrested on heroin 
charges in local communities in the last three months.

Police say the statistics are a poor indication of the problem, which they 
believe reaches much deeper. On the South Shore, they say, heroin is not so 
much creating chaos in communities as it is quietly ravaging individual 
lives and families.

The statistics on arrests for heroin possession and distribution do not 
account for teenagers whose abuse goes unnoticed by parents and police; nor 
do they account for robberies, petty thefts and violent crimes committed to 
pay for drugs.

''We're seeing a lot of smash-and-grabs,'' said Weymouth police Lt. George 
Greenwood. ''They'll throw a brick through the window of a store and then 
they'll run right down the street and buy bags of heroin. You can follow it 
all back to people who need a fix.''

In the whitewashed hallways of the Norfolk County House of Correction, 
statistics do not tell the story of Michael Gavin, 22, and Michael 
Gallagher, 25, two Quincy men serving sentences for drug-fueled crimes.

Both started using heroin as young men, both have been in and out of prison 
and both have stolen, lied and become violent to support their habits. Both 
men also say they want to quit the drug, only they don't know if they can.

During an interview this week, Gavin, a cleancut young man who used to work 
construction, held his arms in the air to show long, dark tracks streaking 
his forearms. Those are the physical wounds of a heroin habit that started 
in his Quincy neighborhood when he was 18.

He says the mental wounds - the guilt and shame over his crimes - are far 
worse.

''I carjacked a lady,'' Gavin said. ''I was withdrawing from heroin. I 
didn't want to walk anymore. I was sweating. I grabbed her, ripped her out 
of the car and took the keys.''

''Police chased me down Dorchester Avenue,'' he continued. '' I was going 
70 miles an hour. I almost killed a few people, I guess. I don't know. I 
was out of my mind.''

When the memory began to come back, intermingling with the hallucinations 
and numbing pain of heroin withdrawal, Gavin said, he tried to commit 
suicide in Bridgewater State Hospital.

''I've been through a lot in the last four years and I was so dope sick I 
wanted to die,'' he said. ''People get so deep into this addiction that 
they want to kill themselves.''

Gavin is awaiting trial in Suffolk Superior Court on a slew of charges, 
including carjacking and armed robbery. While he spoke, Gallagher and two 
other inmates nodded at the familiarity of his story.

They acknowledged the long odds against recovering from heroin addiction, 
which counselors say is statistically as remote as overcoming leukemia.

The inmates said the hold of the drug is stronger than any inspiration life 
can muster. They told of how it lasted through their families' threats of 
abandonment; through the deaths of friends who died of overdoses; through 
jail sentences; and even the birth of children.

In local communities, addiction is beginning to catch on with young people, 
and it is not starting within the stereotypical confines of broken-down 
neighborhoods in urban communities. It is starting, police say, in 
middle-class suburban neighborhoods and schools.

During the last five years, arrests for heroin offenses among teenagers 
have spread across the South Shore. While arrest numbers tend to increase 
with community size and proximity to Boston - Quincy and Weymouth had the 
most, nine each - the problem has reached smaller communities as well.

In 2003, Rockland teens accounted for the most arrests.

Last week, Keating said two middle school students were arrested for heroin 
possession at a South Shore middle school - he would not name the town for 
fear of identifying the students in their communities.

In Weymouth, Adam Dalton, 18, and Jenna Cimino, 17, were arrested Tuesday 
on charges of possession of heroin and a hypodermic needle. Officers on 
stakeout arrested them as part of an investigation into heroin sales.

When Christina Mate was arrested in Stoughton on March 26, all she was 
trying to do was get back into school.

According to a police report, an assistant principal opened the door for 
her, then saw the 17-year-old honors student and star swimmer hide 
something in her pants.

It was a heroin-filled syringe and a bag of brown powder.

Stoughton Police Chief Manuel Cachopa wouldn't talk about Mate's arrest; he 
said he doesn't want to cause her family any more grief.

But he said the arrest will more than likely come up at a seminar on heroin 
for parents being hosted by the Norfolk County district attorney's office 
on April 26.

''I don't see how we're going to neglect it,'' Cachopa said. ''Heroin is 
very cheap. It's $3 to $4 a hit.''

''Listen, heroin is very plentiful,'' he said. ''It's all over the place.''

* Staff writer John Zaremba contributed to this story.
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