Heroin-related deaths in Los Angeles County soared
from 137 in 2002 to 282 in 2004 before dropping to 239 in 2005, still
a jump of nearly 75 percent in three years, a period when other factors
contributing to overdose deaths remained unchanged, experts said.
The jump in deaths was especially prevalent among
users older than 40, who lack the resilience to recover from an overdose
of unexpectedly strong heroin, according to a study by the county's
Office of Health Assessment and Epidemiology.
"The rise of heroin from Afghanistan is our biggest
rising threat in the fight against narcotics," said Orange County
sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. "We are seeing more seizures and
more overdoses."
According to a Drug Enforcement Administration
report obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Afghanistan's poppy fields
have become the fastest-growing source of heroin in the United States.
Its share of the U.S. market doubled from 7 percent in 2001, the
year U.S. forces overthrew the Taliban, to 14 percent in 2004, the
latest year studied.
Another DEA report, released in October, said
the 14 percent actually could be significantly higher.
Not only is more heroin being produced from Afghan
poppies, it is also the purest in the world, according to the DEA's
National Drug Intelligence Center which monitors heroin coming into
the United States.
Despite the agency's own reports, a DEA spokesman
denied that more heroin is reaching the United States from Afghanistan.
"We are not seeing a nationwide spike in Afghanistan-based
heroin," Garrison Courtney wrote in an e-mail to the Los Angeles
Times.
He said in an interview that the report that showed
the growth of Afghanistan's U.S. market share was one of many sources
the agency used to evaluate drug trends. He refused to provide a
copy of DEA reports that could provide an explanation.
The agency declined to give the Times the report
on the doubling of Afghan heroin into the United States. A copy was
provided by the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a member
of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control.
This potent heroin, which the DEA says sells for
about $90 a gram in Southern California, has prompted warnings from
some officials who deal with addicts that they should reduce the
amount of the drug they use. Many addicts seeking the most euphoric
high employ a dangerous calculation to gauge how much of the drug
they can consume without overdosing. An unexpectedly powerful bundle
of heroin, therefore, can be deadly.
"I tell people, 'If you're using it, only use
half or three-quarters of what you used to,' because of the higher
potency," said Orlando Ward, director of public affairs at the Midnight
Mission on Los Angeles' Skid Row.
Health workers in boutique rehab centers and health
clinics for the homeless say increasing numbers of clients are addicted
to more powerful heroin.
"My patients say it's more available and cheaper," said
Michael Lowenstein, a doctor at the Waismann Method detoxification
center in Beverly Hills.
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the
U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime warned world health authorities in
October of the increase in Afghan heroin.
"This, in turn, is likely to prompt a substantial
increase in the number of deaths by overdose, as addicts are not
used to injecting doses containing such high concentrations of the
drug," he said.
From 1980 through 1985, Afghan heroin dominated
the U.S. market with a 47 percent to 54 percent share, according
to the DEA.
Afghanistan's share dwindled to 6 percent for
much of the 1990s, as competition from Southeast Asia and Colombia
grew.
Meanwhile, the Taliban was cracking down as it
gained territory, virtually eliminating poppy production after taking
over the country.
Once the fundamentalist Islamic government was
overthrown in 2001, Afghans returned to the poppy trade to survive
in one of the poorest countries in the world. The poppy crop now
drives the economy in some regions of the embattled nation, helping
to fund a Taliban resurgence.
U.S. and European efforts to end Afghanistan's
$2.3 billion opium business are failing, according to a report released
Nov. 28 by the World Bank.
Indeed, the production of opium used to produce
heroin reached its highest level ever in Afghanistan this year. It
accounted for more than one-third of Afghanistan's gross domestic
product and 90 percent of the world's supply of illicit opium, mainly
supplying Asia and Europe, according to the report.
In the United States, Afghan and Mexican poppies
were the second-largest source of heroin in 2004, according to the
DEA's Heroin Signature Program. South America, led by top supplier
Colombia, held 69 percent of the market. That figure dropped 19 percentage
points from the 2003 level as U.S. and Colombian efforts to eradicate
the trade enjoyed success and as Afghanistan's share increased, according
to the DEA.
The Department of Homeland Security also has found
evidence of increasing Afghan heroin in this country. The agency
reported skyrocketing numbers of seizures of heroin arriving at U.S.
airports and seaports from India, not a significant heroin-producing
country but a major transshipment point for Afghan drugs. The seizure
of heroin packages from India increased from zero in 2003 to 433
in 2005 -- more than 80 percent of total heroin mail seizures that
year.
