Pubdate: Tue, 01 Aug 2006
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2006 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Colin Moynihan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

THE POWDERY CONTENTS ARE GONE, BUT THE STAMP OF ADDICTION REMAINS

GENERATIONS of addicts have prowled the Lower East Side looking for a 
fix, and countless bags of heroin have changed hands there. The 
powder in those bags was quickly consumed; the empty bags tossed 
aside until most of them were blown away by the wind or washed away 
by the rain.

But some of them have found their way into a collection maintained by 
Clayton Patterson.

Mr. Patterson, 58, a photographer, has been collecting "dope bags" 
for 20 years. Some he found while walking the streets or visiting 
spots where addicts have congregated. Others were given to him by a 
revolving cast of characters who shared his fascination.

"This collection reflects a major part of the underground culture in 
this neighborhood," Mr. Patterson said. "Dope dealing was one of the 
biggest parts of the neighborhood and one of the least documented."

Mr. Patterson said his fascination with the bags started in the 
mid-1980's when a heroin user showed him an album in which he had 
placed bags and listed the places where he had bought them. Over the 
years, Mr. Patterson has added to that album and started another.

Mr. Patterson estimated that he has collected nearly 2,000 bags, and 
about 700 of those are cataloged. The bags, which are generally made 
of plastic or wax paper, bear names or images that identify the 
contraband inside. Those labels -- part turf marker, part marketing 
message -- allowed users to differentiate among dealers and evaluate 
the drug's purity.

Although the collection is dominated by heroin bags from the Lower 
East Side, it also includes a few from Brooklyn and a handful that 
once contained cocaine.

The collection, viewed page after page in the albums, has a magnetic 
quality, even when considering the untold misery that the contents 
doubtlessly created. Some of the labels, like D.O.A., Body Bag, Post 
Mortem or Poison, seemingly embrace the dangerous reality of their 
contents. A brand of heroin sold on the Lower East Side in 1982 was 
stamped with letters that spelled AIDS. There are brands named F.B.I. 
and Secret Service and others called Forsythe or 4th D, which refer 
to where the heroin was sold. Devil's Bag, sold in 1985, was stamped 
with a Manhattan phone number.

Though the collection might strike some as grisly, Mr. Patterson 
thinks it has a lasting value and is hoping to create a book to 
document the history of heroin in the area.

"We're talking about relics from a Lower East Side street drug 
culture that is gone," he said. "I think evidence of that time 
deserves to be preserved."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman