In drug war, a surge in heroin - Afghan bumper crop is blamed for rise in high-quality narcotic hitting U.S. streets

In drug war, a surge in heroin - Afghan bumper crop is blamed for rise in high-quality narcotic hitting U.S. streets
By Garrett Therolf
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published December 27, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- The amount of high-quality heroin in America is surging because of an increasing supply from Afghanistan, and with it the fear that record-breaking poppy harvests after the U.S.-led invasion are fueling more addictions and overdose deaths back home.

According to a Drug Enforcement Administration report, 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.-led forces overthrew the Taliban regime, to 14 percent in 2004, the latest year studied.

Another DEA report, released in October, said the amount could be significantly higher than 14 percent.

Not only is more heroin being produced from Afghan poppies coming into the United States, it is also the purest in the world, according to the DEA's National Drug Intelligence Center.

Despite the agency's reports, a DEA spokesman denied that increased quantities of heroin were 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.

Courtney 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 U.S. A copy was provided by the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

The impact is being felt in Feinstein's home state. 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.

The potent Afghan heroin has prompted warnings from some officials who deal with addicts that they 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 rehab centers and health clinics say increasing numbers of clients are addicted to more powerful heroin.

"My patients say it's more available and cheaper," said Dr. Michael Lowenstein at the Waismann Method detoxification center in Beverly Hills.

From 1980 to 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, and virtually eliminating poppy production after taking over Afghanistan.

Once the fundamentalist Islamic government was overthrown in 2001 with the help of U.S. forces, Afghans turned again to the poppy trade.

A Nov. 28 report by the World Bank said U.S. and European efforts to end Afghanistan's $2.3 billion opium business were failing.

The production of opium used for 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.

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Chicago avoids potent product

While Afghan heroin is having an increasing effect in the United States, police have found almost none of it is sold in Chicago.

Most of the heroin in Chicago comes in a light brown powder form produced in Colombia and Mexico. It is trafficked to Chicago by cartels in Mexico, especially through the state of Durango.

Although most Afghanistan's heroin in the U.S. is moved through Mexican channels as well, the illicit drug is dealt mostly west of the Mississippi River, said a member of the Chicago Police Department's heroin task force, who asked not to be identified.

-- David Heinzmann