Pubdate: Sat, 14 Jun 2014
Source: News Journal, The (Wilmington, DE)
Copyright: 2014 The News Journal
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/1c6Xgdq3
Website: http://www.delawareonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/822
Author: Adam Taylor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

HEROIN IN DELAWARE: CHEAP, PURE, PLENTIFUL

The Spike in Heroin Use Is a Result of a Crackdown on Abuse of 
Prescription Painkillers.

In Delaware and around the country, heroin is in vogue again.

It's a deadly fad. In the last eight months, fatal overdoses from all 
drugs, including alcohol, have jumped from 12 to 15 a month. Heroin's 
resurgence is to blame for the rising death count, state officials say.

The problem is everywhere, and in all sections of New Castle County, 
from the Hunter's Run Trailer Park in Bear to the upscale Country 
Creek community near Newark. Some users died in bedrooms, others on 
bathroom floors. One was found in a shed behind a home in Chelsea 
Estates. Another was lying on a driveway in Bear.

The victims in the 15 suspected heroin deaths that New Castle County 
Police responded to so far this year range in age from 22 to 51 years 
old. Nearly a third of them were female. All but one of them was 
white. Some already had been through drug rehab before heroin killed 
them. Four had been released from jail within days of their deaths.

Eight of the deaths statewide have been due to heroin laced with 
fentanyl, a synthetic painkiller added to the heroin to make it 
stronger and more attractive to the addict.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder calls heroin an "urgent public 
health crisis" in America. Delaware Health and Human Services 
Secretary Rita Landgraf says it's an epidemic.

New Castle County Police Chief Elmer Setting, who once forced his 
teen daughter to watch an OD victim in a body bag get rolled into a 
medical examiner's van, said the drug is his department's top priority.

By all accounts, the latest spike in heroin use is a result of a 
successful crackdown on the abuse of prescription painkillers such as 
Percocet and Oxycontin. Doctors began to prescribe the drugs less and 
manufacturers made the tablets harder for addicts to crush so they 
could snort or inject them.

The cost of the pills skyrocketed as the supply dried up. Today, a 
single 30-milligram Percocet can cost $30, according to David 
Dongilli, the special agent in charge of the DEA for Pennsylvania and Delaware.

The heroin market responded with a drug that is more plentiful, purer 
and cheaper than ever before, Dongilli said. Twenty years ago, heroin 
was 17 percent pure and cost $10 a bag. Today, it's around 67 percent 
pure and can be purchased in Wilmington for as little as $3 a bag. 
Even novice users from the suburbs know which parts of the city to 
visit to find a willing seller.

Heroin takes over

At least 1,990 people each year who have sought treatment from 1998 
to 2009 cited heroin as their primary drug of choice, state treatment 
numbers show. The number dipped to 1,529 in 2010, when the treatment 
numbers for other opiates such as Oxycontin and Percocet soared, 
state statistics show.

The crackdown on prescription opiates took effect last year. In 2012, 
1,793 people sought state-funded treatment for the prescription 
painkillers. That number dropped to 1,261 in 2013.

Heroin clearly took its place. In 2012, 1,845 people sought heroin 
treatment. In 2013, it was 2,750, the highest number since at least 1987.

Dongilli said the bulk of Delaware's heroin comes from South America 
and travels through Mexico. Most of it arrives in New York City in 
bulk and gets processed in mills, where it's cut and bagged into 
individual doses.

It makes its way to Delaware on I-95 to Wilmington.

Wilmington's Vice Squad Commander Steve Barnes characterized the city 
as partly a retail spot for northern New Castle County's heroin 
trade, and partly a wholesale hub that supplies places such as Dover 
and Millsboro in downstate Delaware, as well as Elkton, Maryland, and 
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

While heroin sales have clearly branched out into New Castle County 
in recent years, Barnes said there's still a steady stream of young, 
white heroin addicts who come to Wilmington for heroin. Often, they 
buy in bulk and sell to their friends.

"We get college kids from Newark who meet dealers in the Adams Four 
parking lot to buy heroin for weekend parties," Barnes said. "They 
mark up the price, because they had to risk getting arrested, robbed 
or shot when they came and got it."

Police say seizures are getting larger. The DEA's Dongilli said a 
decade ago, he'd call a press conference if his agent confiscated a 
single kilogram of heroin. Now, that doesn't even warrant a press 
release, as multi-kilo seizures are the norm. Similarly, Barnes said 
arresting someone with a log of heroin - 10 bundles, or 130 bags - 
used to be a big deal. Now, two logs is considered a small seizure.

State police have been making big heroin arrests on the interstate 
recently as well. In separate arrests on May 7, troopers took 40,000 
bags from a car on Del. 1 near Middletown and 13,000 bags from a car 
in Claymont.

Addicted in weeks

The euphoric rush of heroin is all encompassing. Addicts talk about 
feeling warm all over, like a full-body orgasm. Ask them about their 
first shot, they get a forlorn look on their face as though they're 
thinking about their favorite childhood pet.

"It sells itself," recovering addict John Dynan from Wilmington said. 
"You don't have to market it."

Public health officials issue cautionary press releases when fentanyl 
is found in heroin, because three grains of it can kill an addict. 
But for some addicts, the news makes them want it even more, because 
a fatal overdose means the dope was good.

"When somebody falls out, it definitely made the block hot," 
recovering addict Chad Golt said.

New Castle County paramedics have been busy this year with the spike 
in heroin use. They administer the opiate-blocker Narcan on a daily 
basis. They're no longer surprised, however, when they aren't greeted 
with gratitude by the addict whose life they just saved.

"Quite often, they're angry because we ruined their high," Chief of 
Emergency Medical Services Lawrence Tan said.

While heroin feels good in the beginning, the romance is brief. Users 
can become addicted in weeks and are soon using it purely as 
maintenance, to avert the symptoms of withdrawal.

"That's why the potential for fatality and devastation from heroin is 
so extreme," said Mandell Much, clinical director at the ARGO 
Institute, an outpatient clinic for young adults in Price's Corner. 
"I've known plenty of binge coke users. There are no social heroin users."

The fun ends quickly. Addicts come from all walks of life, but their 
lives soon take nearly identical paths. They embark on a twisted road 
of arrests, car accidents, emergency room visits, job losses and 
failed relationships. Many steal, usually first from family, then 
their employers, then strangers.

"You pretty much have to spend every waking hour securing, figuring, 
finagling, stealing, conniving, cheating and manipulating to get the 
$200 to $300 a day for your addiction," Much said.

Filling the void

Drugs tend to go through cycles of popularity, treatment experts and 
law enforcement officials say.

Sometimes it's because of availability. Use of a particular drug will 
wane because addicts see their older siblings or their friends wind 
up in rehabs, jails or cemeteries. Eventually, when those morbid 
reminders fade, a drug returns on to the scene. The National 
Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) calls this phenomenon "generational forgetting."

A drug addict will always find a new drug to use to get high.

"It's always going to be something," Much said. "These people have 
been damaged, and there's a void in them. We can remove all the 
heroin from the world and they're still going to have to fill that void."

Setting, the police chief, understands that record-setting heroin 
seizures are a drop in the bucket of the product that's on the 
street. And that another substance would replace it anyway.

"We did a good job with prescription drugs and heroin filled that 
void," Setting said. "With enforcement, education and treatment, we 
have to do the same thing with heroin. Then we'll have to take a deep 
breath and do the same thing with the next thing that comes along."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom