By SARI ZEIDLER
The words, spoken by Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Teresa Corrigan, hung over the hushed crowd in the auditorium at Calhoun High School on the evening of March 24. Corrigan was nearing the end of a presentation on the rise of a new trend among Nassau's adolescents, heroin abuse.
Corrigan and District Attorney Kathleen Rice visited Calhoun to present a program called "Not My Child: The New Heroin Threat to Our Youth," an educational initiative to inform communities about the dangers of the drug to Long Island teens.
The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District and the Community Parent Center co-sponsored the event. An estimated 200 people attended.
Sub How heroin returned
Because of widespread awareness of the connection between hypodermic needles and deadly diseases such as hepatitis and HIV-AIDS, heroin had virtually disappeared from Nassau for years, Corrigan said. Now that it is available in a snortable form, the stigma of the syringe is gone and the long out-of-vogue drug is making a swift comeback.
Heroin was catapulted into the local spotlight after the death of Natalie Ciappa, an 18-year-old from Massapequa who suffered a fatal heroin overdose last June. Communities reacted with shock that the drug had claimed the life of the Plainedge High School student. Even more shocking, perhaps, was a photo of Ciappa circulated in the media in which she wore a vibrant black-and-yellow floral dress. She had a bright smile, was full figured and looked healthy. The photo, said Corrigan, was taken after Ciappa had been addicted to heroin for more than a year.
Her parents had admitted her to rehabilitation programs a number of times, but none worked. At 18, she refused to go to rehab.
Ciappa's death forced Long Islanders to confront a lurking danger not previously on their radar, and prompted the creation of the Not My Child program. But the problem has been slowly growing for nearly a decade, according to a press release published by the district attorney's office in July 2008. It read, "Heroin arrests have steadily increased since 2000, culminating with the arrest of 151 people for sale or possession of the drug in 2007."
"This is a problem that is alive and well here," Rice said.
Corrigan described a perfect storm of elements that made Nassau County a prime market for heroin. "What we're seeing now is an increase in prescription pills," she said, noting a growing trend in which teenagers sneak off with pain medications that were legitimately prescribed to their parents to use them "recreationally." Pain killers, like heroin, are opiates, making them a precursor to heroin use, Corrigan said.
"What we have seen in the college area are pill parties," she said, explaining that once a few pills are stolen, teens and young adults bring them to a party, put them in a bowl and then pick and choose ones to swallow. They are often unaware of what they are ingesting, and they may mix their pill-popping with marijuana and alcohol use.
Prescription medications soon run out. When the stolen prescriptions are gone, teens discover $50 to $60 price tags for individual pills on the street.
In July 2008, the district attorney's office announced 10 heroin-related arrests, including Donald Kurth of Merrick. The arrests came as a result of a five-month investigation that led detectives to Alexander and Edward Fontanet, brothers from Queens who were funneling heroin into Nassau through Kurth and a Massapequa man, Patrick Graf. All four were arrested with heroin in a powdered form, more pure than earlier versions, that could be snorted rather than injected, said Corrigan.
"Like anything in this world, heroin is marketed," she said, adding that prices range from $4 to $15 a bag -- cheaper than prescription pills. Additionally, bags were stamped with logos geared toward teens such as "Prada" and even "Obama."
Most notably, unlike heroin that is injected, snortable heroin doesn't ravage a user's appearance or require the use of needles. So, while many of the stigmatizing aspects of being a junkie are removed, the heroin is still life-threatening.
Though Kurth, Graf and the Fontanets are now in prison, the customer base they built still exists. "As long as there's demand, someone will step up" to deal heroin, Corrigan cautioned.
Sub What are the dangers?
Heroin is highly addictive, no matter in what form it is ingested, which includes smoking in addition to snorting and injection, according to the Phoenix House in New York City, a nonprofit organization for addiction prevention, recovery and treatment. And the dangers for addicts and new users extend beyond immediate health risks.
Heroin in any form can produce a fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion or collapsed veins, according to a Phoenix House fact sheet. When snorted rather than injected, it can cause a number of heart problems, including cardiac arrest and infection of the heart lining and valves. It can also send users into a coma and cause liver disease.
Snorting heroin can escalate to injecting, said Detective Lt. Andrew Fal of the Nassau County Police Narcotics Vice Squad. After a while, an addict will crave a stronger high than can be achieved by repeated snorting and turn to needles, he said, adding, "Eventually they do go to that because they don't get the high they first experienced." Once needles are introduced, users risk exposure to hepatitis, HIV-AIDS and other infections.
As heroin users chase more intense highs, they may end up in dangerous situations. Corrigan played a surveillance video from a Nassau County doughnut shop depicting a woman in her early 20s stumbling and eventually collapsing onto a public stairwell as a young man who accompanied her walked off, leaving her alone. The two had just injected heroin in the doughnut shop bathroom, Corrigan said.
A police officer happened upon the woman and tried to take her to the hospital, but she grew infuriated that he had interrupted her high. She refused to press charges against the man who abandoned her because he had helped her inject the heroin.
"It's a really sad situation. Kids are turning to heroin, and they don't know what they're getting into," said Fal. "There's almost like a social amnesia."
Sub What can be done
Nassau police are working with the Drug Enforcement Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Justice, to combat local heroin problems, focusing particularly on the South Shore after Ciappa's death, Fal said. He added, "We're following up whatever leads we have anywhere, of course."
Corrigan and Rice said that knowledge about the drug is the first line of defense. "Education and awareness can give us the tools we need to keep ourselves safe," Rice said.
Corrigan ticked off the typical signs of heroin abuse. Addicts will nod off in the middle of conversations, then wake up as if nothing had happened. They can also have the chills or nausea, scratch themselves incessantly and show a disregard for personal hygiene.
She suggested that parents get to know their children's friends, and trust their own instincts.
And she pointed to a surprising clue: soda cans and snack containers. Corrigan displayed a Diet Coke can, Arizona iced tea can and Fritos canister. All appeared to be real and felt full and unopened. But the cans, Corrigan said, actually had false tops and bottoms, and are designed to weigh around the same as a full container. The cans can be bought in novelty stores and are often used to conceal drugs because they don't appear suspicious to adults.
"It really runs the gamut," said Fal. "Simply hiding it on themselves, in these false cans, in their sneakers, false compartments in cars. It could be anything. They try to hide it as best they can."
The key, said Corrigan, is to realize that heroin addicts no longer look like the strung-out junkies that many people think of. They can look like regular teens. "It is potentially your child," she said. "It is your backyard."
Resources
Nassau Alliance for Addiction Services
Drug and Alcohol Hotline (516) 481-4000
www.nassaualliance.org
www.noslang.com/drugs
An online resource to help parents decode teen drug terms
District Attorney anonymous hotline
(516) 739-6666
Comments about this story? SZeidler@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 236.
