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Police say use of heroin by Nassau teens rising

BY ANN GIVENS | ann.givens@newsday.com

9:01 PM EDT, May 8, 2008

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Heroin, once the drug of choice for hopeless junkies, is becoming in vogue among an alarming number of middle-class Nassau County teenagers, police told local school officials at a meeting Thursday.

The teens, who come from communities such as Merrick, Franklin Square and Massapequa Park, often start out using prescription drugs, and move on to heroin -- which can be found easily for as little as $7 a bag -- when their supplies get scarce, police said. Many of them have a false sense of security because they don't inject the drug, but start out snorting or smoking it, police said.

"It's scary," said Mark Scher, principal of East Meadow High School. "Kids on the edge will try anything. Now they can get a bag of heroin for less than the cost of going to a movie."

In 2002 there were about 100 heroin sale and possession arrests countywide. Last year there were about 150 -- a 50-percent increase -- said Det. Lt. Pete Donohue, deputy commanding officer of Nassau's Narcotics and Vice Squad.

Suffolk police did not return repeated calls seeking comment on heroin use in their county Thursday, though statistics show that drug overdoses, including those from heroin, have been on the rise there.

The rise in heroin use is being seen mostly in the Northeast, where the drug is entering the country from Mexico and South America, according to a report by the National Drug Intelligence Center, which is run by the U.S. Department of Justice. In recent years, the heroin that's entering the country has become purer than ever before, allowing users to snort and smoke it, rather than shoot it intravenously, the report said.

That's made it appealing to teenagers, many of whom would never have dreamed of taking intravenous drugs, police said.

"When teenagers snort heroin, they don't see themselves as the addicts that they are," said Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice, who added that drug-related prosecutions are on the rise. "When you remove the stigma of the needle, add a higher purity substance and throw in an increase in the social acceptance and perceived glamour among their peers, you have a recipe for an epidemic."

Many of the teenagers who are becoming addicted today weren't even alive during the heroin epidemic of the 1980s, said Nassau Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey.

On Thursday, Mulvey told school officials from across the county that they need to begin looking for signs of heroin abuse in their students. He described the signs of addiction, such as nodding off and poor hygiene, and showed them what the drugs look like, in case they turn up on campus.

Thomas Willdigg, president of the Nassau County Detectives Association, said educating teachers and parents is a good first step toward solving the problem. He said he also hopes the department will consider forming a special task force devoted to the drug.

One school official, who would not give her name, stood at the end of the presentation to urge police and school officials to take the problem seriously. Her son, now 28, was a heroin addict at 15.

"This is real," she said. "Very real. Please take it seriously."