Heroin

Heroin is an emerging threat in New Hampshire, as it is throughout northern New England. South American heroin is available, prices are stable, and purity levels are high. Dominican distributors from Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts, control transportation and wholesale distribution, while users and independent dealers from New Hampshire control retail distribution.

Abuse

Heroin abuse in New Hampshire increased in 1999. The typical users are young adults who snort or, to a much lesser extent, smoke the drug. Increasingly, heroin is attracting a new user population whose perceptions of the risks associated with heroin use are reduced because the drug can be effectively snorted or smoked rather than injected.

Heroin treatment admissions increased from 124 in 1997 to 166 in 1998. In 1997, the New Hampshire Chief Medical Examiner reported 27 heroin-related overdose deaths. This figure equals the combined totals for the previous two years: 1995 (14) and 1996 (13). The Nashua Police Department reported that the increase in heroin overdoses was the most notable change in the heroin situation in its jurisdiction.

New Hampshire's heroin population is located in three geographical areas: Portsmouth; Manchester, Nashua, and Salem; and Keene. (See Figure 3.) Portsmouth and the seacoast area are home to a cluster of hardcore users who usually travel to the Lowell and Lawrence areas of Massachusetts to obtain bags of heroin for personal use and to sell to a network of friends and associates. Similarly, users in the Manchester-Nashua-Salem corridor make daily trips to Lowell, Lawrence, and Boston to acquire multiple bags of heroin for personal use and for distribution. Users in Keene typically travel to Springfield, Massachusetts, to obtain heroin.

Figure 3. New Hampshire heroin user populations.

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Source: DEA, State Threat Assessment-New Hampshire, October 1999.

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Availability

Heroin is available at the street level with purity levels that exceed the national average of 57 percent. In 1999, the Nashua Police Department reported an 80 percent purity level for heroin seized at the retail level. The price of heroin remains constant at $10 to $20 per bag. 

Table 3. Heroin Prices, New Hampshire, 1999

Source: DEA, State Threat Assessment-New Hampshire, October 1999.

Data from the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) show 69 first-charge heroin arrests in New Hampshire in 1998, an increase from 43 arrests in 1997 and 21 arrests in 1996. The New Hampshire Attorney General's Drug Task Force reported an increase of heroin undercover purchases and seizures in 1999. The most significant increase occurred on the seacoast and in southern New Hampshire.

In 1998, a joint DEA-New Hampshire Drug Task Force investigation resulted in the seizure of 165 grams of heroin, the largest reported seizure in the history of the state. A Dominican trafficker from New York City used a delivery service to pick up heroin in Lynn, Massachusetts. Agents arrested the defendant upon delivery of the heroin in New Hampshire.

Violence

Because New Hampshire heroin users primarily acquire the drug in Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts, in New Hampshire, violence associated with heroin distribution is uncommon. There have been no reports of violence associated with heroin use. 

Production

Heroin is produced in four source regions: Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia, South America, and Mexico. South American heroin is the primary type of heroin available in New Hampshire, but small amounts of Mexican black tar and brown powdered heroin, along with some Southeast Asian heroin, are also present in the state.

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Transportation

Dominican and Colombian criminal groups transport heroin from New York City to the Massachusetts cities of Lowell and Lawrence, which serve as distribution centers for users and independent dealers in New Hampshire. These individuals make frequent trips to Lowell and Lawrence to purchase heroin from Dominican criminal groups; the users and dealers do not appear to purchase heroin from Colombian criminal groups because the Colombians typically operate on a higher level, using Dominicans to sell to users and to distribute outside of Massachusetts. Two more cities in Massachusetts, Lynn and Haverhill, are also considered distribution centers, although on a smaller scale, for heroin transported to New Hampshire. These cities supply the southern portions of New Hampshire. As in the scenario discussed above, users and independent dealers travel to Lynn and Haverhill to purchase heroin from Dominican distributors. Finally, heroin is also transported directly into New Hampshire by Dominican criminal groups who obtain the drug from their sources in New York and Connecticut.

Independent dealers, users, and Dominican criminal groups transport the drug into New Hampshire using private vehicles and traveling via Interstates 95 and 93 and, to a lesser extent, Route 3. New Hampshire users travel these routes daily to acquire heroin for personal use and to resell on the retail level. Interstate 93 continues to be the most popular drug trafficking route into New Hampshire, and the State Police routinely make drug possession arrests along this route. New Hampshire State Police seized more than 50 bags of heroin on Interstate 93 in 2 separate arrests in August 1999. In its response to the NDIC National Drug Threat Survey 2000, the Manchester Police Department reports that Colombian criminal groups are the primary transporters of heroin into its jurisdiction; however, these groups do not appear to play a significant role into transporting heroin New Hampshire as a whole.

Distribution

In New Hampshire, wholesale distribution of heroin is limited because most wholesale level transactions occur in the regional distribution centers of Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts. Typically, independent dealers and users purchase heroin from Dominican criminal groups in Massachusetts and then distribute the drug in New Hampshire. Few of these dealers and users operate on the wholesale level. Reports from the Manchester and Nashua Police Departments also indicate that Dominican criminal groups are directly involved in retail heroin distribution in these areas.

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