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Image provided by: Jefferson Market Library
-- --- Voiume^jfNumber 50 c e n ts f I'! 1 Win-i«ii ^ ’ Last week the Seward Park High School baseball team was oh top of the world, after defeating tough rival George Washington High for the Manhattan championship. But yesterday, the Lower East Side squad, hoping to move to the citywide semifinals, iaal.J 1-3, to Brooklyn's South Shore Hij “ ^ Page 7. Inside 3 20 arrested in Tompkins ruckus 8 Editoriai, Letters 9 Morgana King’s different New York 80 Eighth Av«.K«w York 10 CopyrlfM C 1984 CItM Slate Carp. A SPECIAL REPORT Lower East Side war on drugs takes no prisoners By Sascha Brodsky Tim can't stop shaking. As the 31- year-old former musician talks about his life as a drug addict on the Lower East Side, sweat pours down his face and his eyes jerk from side to side. Tim is apt alpric. The Lower^J^st;- Side is the drug capital of N 5W York City,, . atxprding\ to jpoliw and' i^iaJ service. officials.^'rivilted only by- Washihgtori ^ Heights. This drug plague sweeps across many lives of people not involved in it: From the principal who comes in early each day to sweep crack vials from in front of his school so the children won't see them, to the iBssex S t merchants who live in fear of armed dealers frequenting their market, to the mother of two who won’t leave her Avenue C apaitinent after dark. It causes violence, often gun battles among rival dealers, and the threat of death is always with i t And the nature of the area's drug scene is changing. Heroin and mixed drug use instead of crack is becoming more prevalent In addition, under heavy police pressure, the dealers are moving from the streets into stores. The footsoldiers in the drug trade are the dealers who supply Tim and the others with drugs. A typical one is a 19- year-old self-professed killer named Daymon, now in a program based on the Lower East Side to reform users and dealers. When he first enter;ed the business, his ambition was to be a big- time dealer and dnve an expensive c a r Instead, he took a fast trip from the streets to Jail. 8.000 users The drugs Daymon sold find a ready market on the Lower East Side, although precise figures are just not obtainable. By one informed estimate, however, there are about 8*000 narcotics users in Lower Manhattan.Tn.anbther according to the city’s Depaitinentof Health, 3*04 percent, orvhboul' 1,450, of the \4*7 total Medicaid-eiigible population in on the Lower East Side are heavy narcotics users. Other, harder, statistics add to the grim story. In 1990, for example, there were 25 deaths in Lower Manhattan from drug-related causes, according to the Department of Health. That is a rate of 10.4 percent per 100,000 people, which compares to a rate of 9.4 in Washington Heights,and 9.5 cityWide, , , Drugs also contribute to the area’s . shoclrihg health record, especially as Jhey * a g ^ v a te the AIDS and TB epidemics.'S haring needles is one way the AIDS virus is passed along. In Zip Code 10002 on the Lower East Side, 598 cases of AIDS have been reported in recent years, most of them believed to be among intravenous drug users. In Zip Code 10003, largely the East Village, there were 288 cases. Intravenous drug users are at a greater risk for AIDS and the virus weakens the body's immune system to allow for the attack of tuberculosis. According to the city's Department of Health, in 1992 101.5 people were infected with tuberculosis per 100,000 population on the Lower East Side, compared with a citywide rate of 52,0. The spiead of tuberculosis is connected to poverty, overcrowding and substandard housing, according to Sam Friedmqn a . spokesperson for the Department of Health. *The current epidemic is also related to the H.I.V, epidemic,” says Fripdman, ”The presence of H.I.V. allows more people Vo have active TB and then it becomes communicable.” Palm Beach tn Bowerv For Ttnit who grew up in South Florida, the numbers are only too real Sitting In the office o f the Needle Exchange Program on E. Third St. between Avenues B and Q he tells o f living m a hotel on the Bowery. He Is handsome, with shoulder length blond hair and is wearing a tie-dyed t-shtrt, He once played bass guitar in a West Palm Beach band called The Swamp Gobitns, But he started smoking marijuana in high school and eventually graduated to harder drugs. He is married *'with nokids as far as I know,** but doesn*t see his wjfe. A friend introduced him, to heroin. ‘ **That *s when [found my drug o f choice, ” he says ironically, . ............ ' Since thun, He‘s been in’^and Out Of ! m I i Vilhitrj^oio bit John Pmlfy Police sledgehammer their way into suspected drug dealer’s in East Village treatment programs. He *d like to keep playing music, he says, but it is hard to keep a guitar from being stolen in the flophouses and city shelters where he lives. Recently, he has been a volunteer at the Needle Exchange Program. Inside the storefront building of the program, teenagers sprawl on couches watching television. They look pale and thin, they are unnaturally quiet and many have swollen marks on their forearms. The marks, called tracks, are from having the site of drug injections become infected. The exchange, one of the largest of its kind in the country, has 5,000 people registered with it. The outlook even for those who take advantage of the clean needles Is grim, says Mark Gilliam^ the director. Most carry the AIDS virus. He ticks off. other diseases associated with drug use that he sees: tuberculosis, hepatitis and endocarditis. 3 main dnigf^ The three drugs mostly being sold in the area, according to users and officials, are crack, cocaine and heroin. Most people enrolled m The Needle Exchange use injectable cocaine, says Gilliam, More than SOpercent are involved ' in a methadone treatment program. On any given day the Needle Exchange hands out needles to around 900 people. The syringes are distributed from a storefront location and by a walking team made jup of two volunteers that goes to heavy drug use locations nearthe burned out buildings that squatters live in. \The Needle Exchange has been shqwn to be Succesful in decreasing needle sharing.” sdys Nina Peyser, executive director of £^eth Israel Medical Center's Chemical Dependency Unit, who is studying the exchange's effectiveness. And, Peyser adds, there has been no increase in the rate of drug use in neighborhood and no increase in the numbers o f needles left on sidewalks, that have alanned the community. Joel Abrcl aya, thcdirector of Project Contact, an liutpatlent drug abuse counseling center in the area, says that drug abusers 'iare usually people who have problems' dealing with everyday living ” He adds that the problem is usually psychological. Continued on page 18 .V.*.- V.-• H i f )'> I •I , M I 1 1 '■ 'S i
