THE HEROIN EPIDEMIC IN NEW-YORK-CITY - CURRENT STATUS AND PROGNOSES

Since 1989, heroin production worldwide has risen; in New York City, a s its purity rose and prices fell, street-level markets were restructu red and offered heroin in addition to cocaine and crack (which had bee n popular during the 1980s). While officials estimate that there are b etween 500,000 and one million hard-core, chronic heroin users nationw ide, evidence of supplemental users heralding another heroin era inclu des: more overdoses and overdose deaths, greater demand for treatment, larger seizures of heroin at all levels of distribution and related a rrests, and broader media coverage. In this article, the authors descr ibe the characteristics of populations in which there may have been a percentage increase of new users, such as young middle-or upper-class European Americans, young Puerto Ricans and recent Haitian and Russian immigrants. The abstinence of young African-Americans is also noted. The article ends with a preliminary needs assessment of the new users in the areas of health (including AIDS), housing, employment, treatmen t, arrest and imprisonment.