Smack, snow, scag, tar, junk were once all names associated with back-alley heroin use in tough parts of the city. Now, these terms - and plenty of pure-grade heroin - may be finding a home on your own suburban street.
Heroin in gel capsules is finding its way onto local high school and college campuses, as well as at parties that young people attend in suburban neighborhoods. Sometimes young people are not even aware that heroin is what they are getting in these gel capsules, but the results can be - deadly.
Carmen and Tom Heard of Fenton lost their son to heroin on Oct. 1, 2010. He came home from college in Springfield, Mo., for a funeral in 2007 and didn't look right. He told his mother that he had a real problem and needed help.
"I was stunned when I found out it was heroin" said his father. "Michael was a great kid. He had great grades and great friends in high school at Rockwood Summit High School. And I always thought heroin was for the lowest of the low, who live in a gutter.
"Michael did have issues with anxiety, and while he was at Missouri State, he began getting prescription meds off the 'brown market' - stuff like Xanax and OxyContin," said Tom Heard. "Those meds were expensive, and the heroin capsules were cheaper and much more available."
Thus began a three-year cycle of addiction, rehab and recidivism, with the addiction ultimately winning out. Last fall, Tom Heard got a call that his son was in the hospital after police found him slumped over the steering wheel. At Barnes Hospital, two physicians, a social worker and a chaplain broke the news that son, Michael, was dead from an overdose.
"It can start with a capsule and end with an addict and an entire family in chaos," said Heard. "It's a disease that is beyond your control to fix. But it's actually far worse than a conventional disease, because I saw it take away everything - my son's confidence, his integrity, his personality.
"I am speaking out because it is therapeutic for me, but far more important, because parents need to know that heroin is all over the place now," said Tom Heard. "And it doesn't start with a needle. And it is right here, not somewhere else."
An Influx of Heroin
Carmen and Tom Heard with their son, Michael (center), taken at a rehab center shortly before his death as the result of a drug overdose. (click for larger version)
"Parents are being blindsided by this stuff and with the most tragic of consequences - their children are dying," said Dan Duncan, director of community services at the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in Brentwood. "I don't think it is fearmongering to say heroin use among suburban young people is becoming epidemic.
"In my 26 years in the field of drug abuse I've seen a lot, but this is the worst because of its lethality," said Duncan. "It's so powerful that kids are dying the very first time using it. In the past five years, we've seen 100 deaths yearly from its use in St. Louis County."
According to Duncan, heroin traffic into this area has increased ten-fold and is coming through Mexico from South America. He said it is purer and cheaper than ever before. He said kids think it is OK, because it comes in a capsule. They snort or smoke the ingredients inside, but at some point, they will be shooting it up with a needle like a junkie.
"The other part of this story is the kids often have already tried pain killers like Vicodin or Oxycodone," said Duncan. "So they see these capsules and think no 'big deal,' but it is a big deal because it offers an intensely pleasurable feeling. You can get hooked after the first use."
Duncan said the heroin capsules are sometimes given to unsuspecting young people for free the first time, just to get them hooked. Soon, they will want to do more pills to get the same high, and then they will be looking for cash to pay for a habit that requires a needle.
"I don't care how good a reputation you think your kid's high school has, I will venture to say there is no school in St. Louis County where some kids aren't using it," said Duncan. "I've done talks about it, twice in Webster Groves, and the rooms are packed, because parents are becoming aware that it's an issue in their back yard."
How We Got Here
"We've had a pharmaceutical drug problem for about 10 years now, with too many people abusing Vicodin, Oxycontin and Oxycodone," said Harry Sommers, special agent in charge of the St. Louis Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). "Pharmaceuticals have become a sort of gateway drug to heroin.
"Heroin never really had a huge market in this country, but a few years ago the Mexican drug cartel decided that they could capitalize on the use of pharmaceutical narcotics," explained Sommers. "What they did is take the needle out of the equation.
"They put the heroin in these $10 capsules," said Sommers. "A capsule is not so scary to a high school or college kid. It's also affordable. Of course, as you quickly need more and more of it, kids go the spoons and the needles and start stealing to support their habit."
"They put the heroin in these $10 capsules. A capsule is not so scary to a high school or college kid. It's also affordable." -- Harry Sommers, DEA (click for larger version)
The DEA's Sommers hesitates to call the new heroin presence in our communities an "epidemic." He did call it an alarming and growing problem that needs to be confronted.
"It's a significant issue, because it is deadly," said Sommers. "It also is hitting a population that never has really been involved in this kind of narcotics abuse."
St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch concurred. He can point to alarming statistics documenting overdose cases involving young, white males. Fitch said an education campaign at schools on the dangers of heroin is imperative.
"Forty-six percent of our drug buys on the street involve heroin now," said Fitch. "Heroin sold on the streets today is on an average four or more times stronger than just five years ago."
Fitch said too many young people in St. Louis County are first abusing prescription drugs, and then graduating to heroin and becoming immediately addicted. He said action must be taken to divert anyone from trying heroin even one time.
"Parents cannot look the other way if they suspect their kids are getting involved in this," said the DEA's Sommers. "Parents need to be very attentive to behavioral changes and if their kids are hanging out with a new set of friends. Obviously, if they are finding cut straws, or needles, or are missing spoons in their home, they have a big problem going on."
More Personal Accounts
"My son came down with a virus in his pancreas in 2006," said Pam Jones of St. Charles. "He was prescribed pain killers for it. He found the pain killers could be bought from friends at college, and in 2009 he actually bought heroin from some friends at a Cardinals baseball game.
"If it were just a matter of will power, Andrew would have beat this," said Jones, fighting back tears. "His personality changed. It was just too big for him. He was totally depressed. On May 12, 2010, he overdosed. My husband and I are not ashamed of Andrew. He was a good kid. We tell other parents: 'If this could happen to Andrew, it could happen to anyone.'"
A Glendale parent, who prefers to remain anonymous, said his family has been dealing with the heroin addiction of a daughter. She has been in and out of rehab programs and is currently in an out-of-state, half-way house for drug abusers.
"My daughter did well when she was in the Webster schools and was pretty normal - no purple hair or nose rings or body tattoos," said the Glendale father. "She started mixing with a different crowd. One day, she came very close to over-dosing and we asked her what was wrong and she said one word: 'heroin.' We had to rush her to the hospital. It put us into shock. We didn't want to believe it.
"I know people in Kirkwood and Webster think they are living in the classic, contented American towns," observed the distraught dad. "But I can tell you there is an underworld here - and my daughter got involved in that underworld. She told me she doesn't want to come back, because it is too easy to get the drugs again - it's like low-hanging fruit here."
He said local law enforcement has told him that the big time dealers are in the South Grand Avenue area of the City of St. Louis. He said they sell capsules to teens to deal at parties, and these teens are told to just give some away, just to get a habit started and the users hooked.
"Shame on me for not being more aware, for not asking questions when my daughter's behavior changed," said the Glendale father, shaking his head. "My advice is to confront your kids if you find empty gel capsule halves in your home. When you start finding cut straws, and spoons are missing, and jewelry disappears - it's probably too late."
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