RiverheadLOCAL special report:
Heroin addiction: Lawmakers, treatment specialists and police anxiously work to contain an expanding epidemic

‘Heroin? It wasn’t even on my radar’
The heroin user is not the junkie shooting up on the corner, Southold Police Chief Martin Flatley said. “That’s what it was years ago. Not any more,” he said.

“People you would never expect to be using, you would never have any inclination. Many can still lead a quasi-normal life, hold a job, go to work, et cetera. You would never know they have a habit like that,” Flatley said.

“The truth is, the heroin problem really is an issue among the middle class,” according to Suffolk County Police Det. Bob Donohue, who runs a program called “The Ugly Truth” aimed at high school students and their parents. “And there’s a level of denial, a level of embarrassment. Parents are ashamed. They say, ‘What did I do wrong’ and so there’s a level of secrecy.”

Heroin use has become “more mainstream, more socially acceptable,” Donohue said. And that’s exactly what worries prevention specialists and law enforcement officers most, because — make no mistake — it is highly addictive.

“Heroin is not a drug you can dabble with, not something you try once or twice,” he said. And that’s a perception Donohue’s progam is battling among Suffolk County’s youth.

According to police and school officials, heroin has not yet taken root in the school-age population across the North Fork. They are working with prevention specialists to make sure it doesn’t take hold.

Southold Town Police are partnering with county police to bring “The Ugly Truth” program to North Fork schools. Riverhead School Superintendent Nancy Carney said the district is exploring that and other prevention curricula.

Donahue’s program consists of an in-school curriculum for students and awareness education sessions for parents — accompanied by training on how to use the heroin antidote Narcan.

Raising awareness among parents is the first step in prevention and rehab, according to Donohue.

“Alcohol and marijuana are still the gateway,” Sini warns. While not all alcohol and marijuana users end up using heroin, nearly all heroin addicts used alcohol or marijuana first. “It’s very rare that the first drug a person tries is heroin.”

Parents are usually pretty familiar with the symptoms of alcohol and marijuana use. But heroin — not so much.

“People will not know their kids are on heroin,” says Patty Brown, “because once they have the fix, they’re normal.”

One thing to watch for is a person dozing off to sleep. “If they just took a dose, they will nod off, just like that,” she says.

When her son starting shooting heroin, Brown says, “my spoons started disappearing.”

Addicts build a tolerance and that’s what usually leads to overdose. They need more and more of the drug to satisfy their cravings, which are powerful — so powerful it’s unbearable not to have a fix.

‘He was crying like a baby’

Brown vividly recalls her son’s efforts to get clean, his attempts to go without the drug he felt like he needed to stay alive.

“He felt like he was dying. He said he felt like you were taking his skin and rolling it back,” Brown recalled.

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