Teen Heroin Use Draws Attention in AZ

Treatment providers, parents, and law enforcement report that youth heroin use in Arizona is on the rise. According to the July 20, 2008 Arizona Daily Star article,("Teen Heroin Use Rising On NW Side") "The 'teenage phenomenon' of heroin use in Pima County seems mostly confined to the north and northwest areas, said Anthony Coulson, the Drug Enforcement Administration assistant special agent in charge of the Tucson District Office. Young users, mostly from families who are well-off, may think of heroin as being less insidious than methamphetamine or cocaine, he said. 'They perceive that there's less risk and less harm,' he said. 'It's not accurate at all.' A dramatic increase in the amount of heroin - including the cheaper black tar - coming into Arizona from Mexico also makes the drug more accessible, he said."

The article adds, "There is a lot of heroin abuse going on,' said Sgt. Mike McBride of the Oro Valley Police Department. McBride leads the department's Community Action Team, which in the last 18 months has arrested or come in contact with numerous young addicts. At least three teens from in and around Oro Valley have died of fatal overdoses in the past 18 months, the sergeant said. Young people primarily are smoking heroin, McBride said. But some as young as 15 also are injecting the drug intravenously. Many of the youths snared in Oro Valley investigations outside school hours went on heroin after abusing OxyContin, a prescription pain reliever found in many medicine cabinets, McBride said. Rampant heroin use among young people is something he hadn't seen in his 19 years of police work, including investigations with the DEA, McBride said."

The article notes, "While McBride and his squad deal with the bottom-end buyers and dealers, they work closely with the DEA when young people are involved. The federal agency usually asks Oro Valley or another local jurisdiction to intervene in an attempt to remove minors - both users and sellers - from the agency's higher-level investigations, said the DEA's Coulson. 'We immediately are going to do some type of intervention with that juvenile because that's a priority for us,' he said."