Pubdate: Tue, 14 Aug 2012
Source: Reading Eagle-Times (PA)
Copyright: 2012 Reading Eagle Company
Contact:  http://www.readingeagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1399
Author: Dan Kelly

HIGH DEMAND FOR HEROIN

Recent busts have reduced supply in Berks, but addicts still need to
satisfy their fix

Whenever there is a high-profile heroin arrest and seizure, as there
have been lately, area hospitals and emergency medical personnel brace
for an increase in overdoses as addicts find different sources of the
drug.

After years of drug abuse, addicts can overdose on an amount they
normally take to get high, said Dr. William Santoro, director of
detoxification and rehabilitation services at Reading Hospital.

Heroin is doubly dangerous because no regulatory agency or
quality-control office oversees its manufacture and packaging, Santoro
said. Abusers never know what they are getting in terms of dosage,
purity or strength.

So far month, state and local drug agents said they broke up three
wholesale heroin supply lines to Berks County addicts.

And while these arrests dried up the supply to street-level dealers,
it didn't stop the demand by addicts.

Heroin is a dangerous drug, third only to nicotine and cocaine in its
addictive hold on its users, he said.

That's why, whenever there is a major heroin bust in Berks County the
staff at Reading Hospital knows to expect an increase in the numbers
of addicts coming to the hospital for rehabilitation services.

That's because addicts know if there is no supply of the highly
addictive opiate on the street, their only real choice is to go to the
hospital where they can go through detoxification under medical
supervision, Santoro said.

After leaving rehab, an addict may go back and forth between buying
heroin on the street and prescription painkillers like oxycodone and
fentanyl, as well as brand names OxyContin and Vicodin.

Santoro explained that heroin, morphine, OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet
and generic versions of oxycodone are all opiates. They are made from
the opium poppy plant and then are manufactured into different forms,
but the effect on the brain and body are the same.

Addiction

Once you get addicted to heroin you never really get over
it.

It's like any other addiction in that respect, except for one big
exception, said Michael J. Gombar, chief county detective.

"I had a confidential informant who was addicted to heroin and she
told me she wasn't taking heroin to get high any more," Gombar said.
"She was taking it so she didn't get sick from withdrawal from heroin."

Gombar said he knows many people who have become addicted to heroin
and they don't always survive their addiction.

"It's very difficult. Their mind keeps telling them they need the
drug," Gombar said. "It hits every one out there."

Growing problem

Gombar spent 18 years as a Reading vice detective and he is still
arresting people for heroin trafficking. The only change is that it's
not confined to the city.

For example, county detectives arrested a Centre Township man on Aug.
3 and seized 468 packets of heroin during a search of his rural
trailer home.

Gombar said heroin continues to account for about 25 percent of the
drug arrests made by his department, partly because the price for a
bag of heroin that cost $10 a decade ago can be bought for $5 or $6
per bag today.

"It's supply and demand - and there is a lot of supply," he
said.

Drug suppliers grow opium poppies alongside marijuana, according to
Trooper David Boehm, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Police at
Reading.

"They can make more money growing heroin than they can marijuana," he
said.

A harsh reality

The gallows humor at the Berks County coroner's office goes that there
hasn't been an increase in the numbers of heroin overdose deaths
because the ambulances are getting to the victims first.

Ambulance and emergency room personnel are equipped with a drug called
Narcan, generic name naloxone, that completely reverses the sedating
effects of heroin and other opiates.

Reading Hospital officials say that over the course of a year about
550 patients, or an average of 1.5 per day, were brought into their
emergency department because of a heroin overdose.

Berks County Coroner Dennis J. Hess, also a former Reading police
officer, said there have been nine confirmed and four suspected heroin
overdoses so far this year. That's about average.

But, though he has not seen an increase in deaths from heroin
overdoses in recent months, he is seeing an increase in deaths caused
by mixing alcohol with heroin or other opiates like prescription
painkillers.

Narcotic painkillers are being prescribed more frequently for an aging
population.

"Doctors write these prescriptions for 90 at a time," Hess said. "They
(patients) keep 30 of them for a month and sell the rest. The danger
comes when you start using a drug like OxyContin with alcohol or heroin."

Hess said alcohol is often the deadly wild card because people worry
less about the effects of alcohol than the pills they are taking. They
may have been drinking alcohol most of their lives.

"A guy may be able to drink five beers and be OK," Hess said. "But
what is the effect of those five beers when he is sleep-deprived, or
hasn't eaten, or is in a bad state of mind and then takes a few pills?"

Both alcohol and narcotic painkillers suppress the central nervous
system, Hess said. When taken in sufficient quantities they can cause
a person to lose consciousness, stop breathing and die.

"That's why we call it a cocktail for death," Hess said.
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