Heroin, a drug long considered an inner-city problem, is finding its way into the hands of more and more teen-agers in the Baltimore suburbs.
Heroin is plentiful, extremely potent and so cheap today that a teen-age abuser can get high by snorting a $10 capsule of it.
In the five counties surrounding Baltimore, the number of people under age 18 admitted to drug treatment programs for snorting heroin has increased nearly fivefold in the past two years, according to research from the Maryland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration.
While the numbers themselves aren't huge -- an estimated 104 teens from Anne Arundel, Howard, Carroll, Harford and Baltimore counties entered treatment in fiscal 1995 compared with 22 in 1993 -- drug counselors and substance abuse experts are concerned because of the insidious nature of heroin.
It's only a matter of time, they said, before a teen-age abuser moves from snorting to intravenous injection in search of a greater high. And shooting heroin requires a syringe, introducing a new set of health risks, including AIDS.
"We have to be careful not to hit the panic button, but there is concern because a trend upward is definitely there," said David Putsche, coordinator of adolescent services for the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration. "And heroin is an extremely dangerous, highly addictive drug. So everybody's keeping a close eye on it."
The changing statistics contradict the stereotype of the unkempt, heroin addict whose years of abuse are measured by the needle marks on his body.
"Five years ago we probably never would have met an adolescent who used heroin at all," said Bonnie Powell, an addictions program specialist for adolescent services in Anne Arundel County.
Now, she said, counselors in Anne Arundel's Open Door treatment program see "probably one instance or more a month" of a youth using heroin.
The story is similar in once-rural Harford and Carroll counties.
Nearly 20 percent of the youths seeking drug treatment through the Harford County Health Department today are using heroin to some degree, said Ray Miller, director of the adolescent drug counseling unit. The unit's six counselors treat adolescents referred from middle and high schools, Juvenile Services, Social Services and individual families.
