Federal drug agency sees rapid rise in heroin use

http://www.patriotledger.com/article/20150526/NEWS/150527587/12662/NEWS/?Start=1

Federal official say the rapidly growing appetite for heroin in cities like Boston is creating lucrative drug markets and drawing the attention of drug traffickers happy to meet the demand.

In an annual threat report on heroin, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration said heroin is rapidly overtaking other substances, including prescription pills, as the greatest drug threat for police to contend with, particularly in the Northeast.

The agency said heroin is available in greater quantities, is being used by more people, and is killing far more of them than it did just a few years ago.

The report, released Friday, was based on a survey of more than 1,000 law enforcement officials across the country.

It’s conclusions came as no surprise to police on the South Shore, who have been on the front lines of what many have seen for years as an opiate crisis.

Quincy police Detective Lt. Patrick Glynn, a drug enforcement expert who has led the push to arm police and firefighters with drugs that can reverse an opiate overdose, said many more addicts in Quincy have turned to heroin in recent years as the supply of prescription painkillers, some of which include a synthetic version of the opiates in heroin, have dried up.

“It’s much more difficult to access pills on the street than it was, and heroin is much more prevalent,” he said.

That shift is playing out across the country, according to the DEA survey, which found that law enforcement officials are now more likely to identify heroin over any other drug as the greatest drug threat. That includes prescription drugs, which peaked in the survey two years ago but have fallen off as more officials became concerned about heroin.

Officials have good reason to be concerned. The National Center for Health Statistics reported in March that the rate at which people were being killed by heroin had tripled between 2010 and 2013, when 8,257 people died from overdoses in the U.S.

In Massachusetts, state health officials estimate that more than 1,000 people died of heroin and prescription drug overdoses last year, including 88 in Norfolk County and 85 in Plymouth County.

The number of people using heroin in the United States is increasingly rapidly as well, nearly doubling from 161,000 in 2007 to 289,000 in 2013, according to the national Survey on Drug Use and Health. Officials on the South Shore have also reported a rapid increase in heroin use here.

“There’s so many more users now, and we’re seeing it so much more frequently,” Marshfield Police Chief Phillip Tavares said.

Federal drug officials say traffickers are working hard to meet that demand.

In the DEA report released Friday, the agency said black tar heroin and brown powder heroin are showing up more regularly in eastern U.S. markets as Mexican traffickers try to move in on Columbian traffickers who have traditionally supplied those areas with white powder heroin. The DEA said traffickers are particularly interested in the “largest, most lucrative heroin markets” in eastern U.S. cities like Boston, New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Page 2 of 2 – Glynn, the Quincy drug detective, said he hasn’t seen any black tar heroin, but brown powder heroin has become more common in the city in the last couple of years.

“It goes in cycles,” he said.

Glynn said the spike in heroin use in recent years is partly the unintended result of law enforcement efforts to crack down on “pill mills” and loose prescribing practices, which he said have made it harder for addicts to get their hands on drugs like oxycodone. The price of heroin has also fallen dramatically since the 1980s, while the drug itself has become more potent.

While police officials are increasingly seeing heroin as one of the biggest threats in their communities, Glynn said many people outside law enforcement still see prescription painkillers – which serve as an introduction to opioids for most people who go on to become heroin addicts – as relatively harmless. He said he said that dangerous misconception is partly responsible for the rapid growth in opioid use.

“It’s just sad to see that happening,” he said. “No matter what kind of education is out there, people are still using it.”

Neal Simpson may be reached at nesimpson@ledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @NSimpson_Ledger.

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