How to Spot Heroin Use In Teenagers; Local Use Up Pros Say

St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch said he once talked with a young woman arrested for buying heroin. She was from Ballwin. She told Finch she got hooked because she was battling depression.

The first time she tried it, according to Fitch, she got a high that she hasn’t been able to achieve since. According to a heroin addiction website, one of the drug's most insidious qualities is that is sends the addict on a quest to repeat that first high, usually a fruitless journey.

And part of the problem is as close as the family medicine cabinet. 

Data reveals that 50 and 60 percent of heroin users started with prescription pain killers, said Dan Duncan, director of community services for the National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse-St. Louis.

The group of professionals was speaking this week during a public forum in Maryland Heights on rising heroin use among St. Louis County teens.

Presenters included St. Louis County Police, the National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse — St. Louis Area (NCADA-St. Louis) and the St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund.

Spotting heroin use

Duncan provided a list of signs parents can look for that suggest opiate use. 

• Long sleeves during summer
• Pinpoint pupils
• Nodding off, oversleeping and lethargy
• Easily irritated or depressed
• Withdrawal from sports, hobbies, friends
• Grades decline, change in peers
• Things/money disappearing
• Secretive change in hygiene

A growing, deadly epidemic

Heroin is a synthetic opiate, presenters told the audience, known commonly on the St. Louis streets as “buttons” or “beans.” Users can get high by snorting the drug, smoking it, or injecting into a vein.

St. Louis County is on track to double its number of heroin deaths this year compared with 2010. The county saw 60 heroin related deaths last year. 

Lt. Chuck Boschert, commander of the St. Louis County Police drug unit, said the county had 35 heroin-related deaths between January and April 2011.

Chemical changes

Kate Tansey, executive director for the St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund, told the audience that heroin affects both the mind and the body.

The human brain, she said, manufactures opiates naturally. These chemicals let us feel pleasure and pain, she said. Opiates like heroin cause the brain to stop producing these chemicals, and thus can create a cycle of addiction to synthetic versions.

Heroin addiction isn’t a light switch you can turn off and on, Chief Fitch pointed out.

Getting help

Patch reported previously that .

• St. Louis: 1-314-830-3232
• St. Charles: 1-636-697-8406
• Metro East: 1-618-398-9409

The forum's speakers also answered questions from the audience about the D.A.R.E. program’s effectiveness, alcohol and tobacco advertising and other topics.