Soaring Overdose Deaths Linked to ‘Black Tar’ Heroin

A potent but relatively inexpensive form of Mexican heroin known as “black tar” helped to triple the number of heroin overdose deaths in Los Angeles County in recent years, and is now proliferating across the United States, law enforcement authorities said Friday.

The unpredictable “black tar,” or simply “tar”--nicknamed for its color and gummy texture--is fueling a resurgence in the use of heroin and its attendant peril, authorities say.

“In my opinion there’s more heroin on the street than there ever has been,” said Los Angeles police Detective Dennis Darger, a narcotics investigator for 17 years. “The quality of heroin is better than it was. The quality is up and the price is down.”

Linked to Deaths

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration this week issued a report asserting that “black tar” has caused scores and perhaps hundreds of deaths by overdose nationwide in the last year.

DEA officials say the heroin strain is processed from opium poppy crops by independent farmers in the northern Mexican states of Durango, Sonora and Sinaloa and then smuggled into the United States primarily by illegal aliens and migrant workers. Its U.S. market has grown from four states in 1983 to 27 this year, and is available “in all established Mexican-American communities in the United States,” the DEA report stated.

“Los Angeles is one of the primary distribution centers” said Robert Feldkamp, a DEA spokesman in Washington.

California was one of the first markets for “tar,” with small amounts evident in the mid-1970s. “But it was very, very isolated,” Feldkamp said. “It wasn’t used as much then, because it was unknown and regarded as dangerous.”

Records of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office suggest that the number of heroin/morphine overdose deaths parallel the rising prevalence of “tar.” (Heroin breaks down into morphine after entering the body’s chemistry, explained Bob Dambacher, a coroner’s spokesman.)

Decline, Then Increase

The number of deaths by heroin/morphine overdose in Los Angeles County peaked at 567 in 1975, coroner’s records show. Heroin was so abundant then that it was sold in relatively pure form. As the availability and use of heroin tailed off, overdose deaths fell year by year to a low of 72 in 1980.

Since then, the number of such overdose deaths has surged, then leveled off, jumping from 165 in 1981 to 227 in 1982 and 224 in 1984. Statistics for 1985 are still being compiled.

“It looks like it’s been on a roller coaster,” said Dambacher. The increasingly common synthetic heroins, sometimes called “designer drugs,” do not register as methadone in autopsies, he added.

Meanwhile, autopsies also show that the number of heroin-related deaths--in which heroin is found in the system, but is not determined to be the cause of death, such as in a traffic accident or homicide--have also increased. From 1974 through 1982, the number of heroin-related deaths ranged from 40 to 53. But the figure climbed to 59 in 1983 and 80 in 1984.

Feldkamp said Los Angeles hospitals that participate in the federal Drug Abuse Warning Network have also reported an increase in the number of heroin-related hospital emergencies, from 1,833 in 1984 to 2,278 in 1985.

Effect of Wider Use

Narcotics investigators say that both wider use and the high potency of “tar” heroin has led to the deaths and injuries.

The “Mexican brown” heroin that had until recently predominated the Los Angeles market is much weaker, explained Los Angeles police narcotics Detective Bill Menzel. But with “tar,” “they’re not cutting it down enough. They’re so used to the weak stuff, then they use this and everything in their respiratory system goes kaput,” Menzel said.

Moreover, “tar” is more capricious than “Mexican brown,” said Lt. Mike Fossey, head of the Sheriff’s Department Narcotics Bureau. “In the days of old, the quality was pretty much predictable. With the different labs producing black tar, there is a variance in quality. And that, of course, can cause an overdose.”

Fossey, Darger and Menzel agreed that “black tar”--also known among dealers and users as “Tootsie Roll” and “goma” (Spanish for glue)--has surpassed the granule “Mexican brown” to become the most common heroin in Los Angeles.

“What is alarming is the purity,” said Dwight McKinney, a DEA spokesman in Los Angeles.

Purity Level Is High

DEA officials said that purity levels of confiscated “tar” have been tested as high as 93% and that 60% to 70% is common even at the retail level. “Mexican brown,” by contrast, tests at about 45%.

Prices, varying according to region and purity of the product, range from $200 to $600 per gram. The price per milligram can be as low as 25 cents, compared to the national average of $2.32 per milligram for other types of heroin.

Most commonly, “black tar” is sold in tiny chips about the size of a match head, at a cost of $20 to $30, drug investigators said. The chip might produce eight doses.

“The first time I saw it I didn’t know what it was,” Darger said. “It smelled like heroin but it didn’t look like any I’d ever seen.”

Although the heroin problem is growing, Fossey stressed that cocaine remains the chief concern of his narcotics team. “I don’t want to belittle heroin, because it’s a deadly drug,” he said. “But we are overwhelmed with cocaine.”

OVERDOSE DEATHS IN

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

1974 450 1975 567 1976 394 1977 127 1978 120 1979 85 1980 72 1981 165 1982 227 1983 222 1984 224 1985 *

* Statistics not yet compiled.

Source: L.A. County Coroner’s Office