Maine detective details growing heroin problem

Maine’s heroin problem has reached epidemic proportions in the past five years, with 1,200 to 1,500 addicts living in the Portland area, a police detective says.

Overdose deaths of known heroin users doubled this year from last, as the total number of deaths swelled to 27, Scott Pelletier, a detective sergeant assigned to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, said in remarks prepared for a congressional hearing Thursday in Washington, D.C.

“We have a heroin epidemic in Portland, Maine, and it is a crisis that knows no age limits and no economic boundaries,” Pelletier said. “The city of Portland, Maine, may be considered small compared to other cities in America, but like many of those larger cities, I can tell you with complete confidence that heroin is the single largest drug threat to our area.”

Pelletier was called to testify before the House Government Reform Committee, which is seeking to curb heroin trafficking from Colombia. Law enforcement officials say a crackdown on cocaine has led drug smugglers to turn to growing poppies for heroin that is cheaper and purer than a decade ago.

Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, a committee member who wasn’t able to attend the hearing, said the heroin problem is “a huge crisis.”

But he said targeting drug growers in Colombia is tricky because spraying to kill the plants also kills children, the central government is weak and growers could flee across porous borders to spread the problem to other countries.

Allen suggested trying to make it harder for Colombia to import chemicals used to process heroin.

Portland police report 27 drug overdoses this year – many from heroin, methadone used to treat addicts and other opiates – compared to 16 last year. Twenty of the deaths this year involved known heroin users, compared to 10 last year, Pelletier said.

The problem is statewide. During the first nine months of this year, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency seized 1,938 grams of heroin, compared to 1,400 grams in all of 2001.

Officials say the increased usage reflects the drug’s lower cost and higher potency in recent years. Doses that used to cost $35 to $50 are now $15 to $25. Traveling to Massachusetts can drop the cost to $4. At the same time, the purity has grown from the 10 percent to 30 percent range to 80 percent.