Heroin use is on the rise in Somerville
Madeline Garber
Issue date: 10/29/07 Section: News
Heroin use by Somerville residents has spiked over the past several years due to the drug's low price and easy availability, according to Gail Enman, the executive director of the Cambridge and Somerville Program for Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation (CASPAR).
Of Somerville residents who are admitted to the CASPAR shelter for substance-abuse treatment, 42 percent say that their primary drug is heroin. The statewide average is lower, at 39 percent, and the average in neighboring Cambridge is 32 percent.
"You wonder what the variable is that distinguishes the two communities, and it's hard to say," Enman said. "It may be the source [or] it might be coming into the borders of the community with greater ease. ... People just have their connections."
Society's stereotype of heroin as "the poor man's drug" no longer holds true today, Enman said. She explained that while CASPAR primarily serves impoverished addicts, the majority of heroin users are employed, educated white men between the ages of 21 and 39.
"The academic achievement of these folks is pretty significant," she said. "They're not a bunch of high school dropouts. The percentage of homeless people who are heroin addicts is lower than one might think. So it's largely people who are carrying on with their lives in one way or another."
To mitigate the effects of heroin abuse, CASPAR oversees a clean-needle exchange program in Cambridge that allows addicts to trade in their dirty needles for clean ones.
There are a few such programs in the state, and the idea behind them is often controversial.
Proponents of exchange programs argue that providing addicts with clean needles prevents the spread of AIDS and other diseases among people who are going to be injecting drugs anyway.
"I really support the needle exchange," said Jeanne Haley, an alcohol and drug treatment specialist at Tufts. "We are trying to decrease risk as much as we can."
While some oppose such programs because they feel that giving needles to heroin users condones drug abuse, Haley said that there clinic is not endorsing heroin use.
Of Somerville residents who are admitted to the CASPAR shelter for substance-abuse treatment, 42 percent say that their primary drug is heroin. The statewide average is lower, at 39 percent, and the average in neighboring Cambridge is 32 percent.
"You wonder what the variable is that distinguishes the two communities, and it's hard to say," Enman said. "It may be the source [or] it might be coming into the borders of the community with greater ease. ... People just have their connections."
Society's stereotype of heroin as "the poor man's drug" no longer holds true today, Enman said. She explained that while CASPAR primarily serves impoverished addicts, the majority of heroin users are employed, educated white men between the ages of 21 and 39.
"The academic achievement of these folks is pretty significant," she said. "They're not a bunch of high school dropouts. The percentage of homeless people who are heroin addicts is lower than one might think. So it's largely people who are carrying on with their lives in one way or another."
To mitigate the effects of heroin abuse, CASPAR oversees a clean-needle exchange program in Cambridge that allows addicts to trade in their dirty needles for clean ones.
There are a few such programs in the state, and the idea behind them is often controversial.
Proponents of exchange programs argue that providing addicts with clean needles prevents the spread of AIDS and other diseases among people who are going to be injecting drugs anyway.
"I really support the needle exchange," said Jeanne Haley, an alcohol and drug treatment specialist at Tufts. "We are trying to decrease risk as much as we can."
While some oppose such programs because they feel that giving needles to heroin users condones drug abuse, Haley said that there clinic is not endorsing heroin use.
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