Heroin purity up, cost down, making potent drug available to younger crowd

Stonington - About 10 years ago, four people died here and others became ill as a particularly potent form of heroin swept across the region.

Police are worried the same thing could happen again as they and other law enforcement agencies across the state are seeing heroin prices plummet to new lows while the purity of the drug has doubled.

Over the past few months police here have seized hundreds of packets of the drug. The most recent incident occurred Jan. 8 when they searched the Marie Avenue home of Robert J. Cozzolino and found 60 bags of heroin.

The problem extends across the country. Just last week police in Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minn., warned the public that heroin purity and deaths are on the rise while users are younger.

"We have a great concern that it will make its way across the street to the high school. We don't want that to happen," Police Chief J. Darren Stewart said last week as he, Capt. Jerry Desmond and detectives David Knowles and Cody Floyd sat down to talk about the problem.

"We don't want to see any kid end up dead because of this," added Knowles.

Police said that over the years heroin has cost $20 to $25 a bag but can now be purchased in the area for $8 and as little as $2 to $3 a bag in cities such as Hartford. A typical addict might use five to 10 bags a day while a long-time addict might need as many as 150.

The purity, which they said used to range in the 17 to 20 percent area, is now around 40 percent, according to Stonington police, based on recent seizures. That means less of the drug is needed to produce the same effect. That can quickly lead to an overdose in someone who is new to heroin use or accustomed to snorting or injecting heroin with less purity.

"We're concerned about it getting to kids in the schools. It's cheaper. It's readily available and this stuff is really potent," Knowles said.

Because users can snort the drug, it also may appeal to new and younger users because they don't need to obtain syringes or risk being identified through needle marks, Floyd said.

Snorting the drug also avoids the stigma of shooting up heroin, added Knowles.

Police said that several years ago OxyContin and other prescription drugs were popular but, as doctors cracked down on abuse with methods such as electronic filing of prescriptions, some drug users turned to heroin because it was easier to get.

As heroin use has shot up, the popularity of crack cocaine has decreased.

James Siemianowski, the spokesman for the state department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said his agency's latest annual data shows heroin use leveling off and not spreading to younger people. But he said that data is for the 2008-09 fiscal year that ended last June 30. In addition, he said there is typically a lag time between when people start using a drug such as heroin and when they begin seeking treatment from his agency. That often happens after an arrest.

"So we may see an increase later," he said.

Siemianowski said that when the price of a drug drops it makes the drug more widely accessible.

"Cost has an influence on people's use so it's certainly something to be concerned about," he said.

Heroin use does not just pose a danger to users, according to police.

Floyd said that heroin and other drug use is directly related to increases in burglaries, robberies and violent assaults.

"Most of our burglaries are drug related," he said.

Police said they are talking daily with other police departments in the area and the Statewide Narcotics Task Force to share information and make arrests.