
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993                   TAG: 9304240252
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

HOSPITALS REPORT JUMP IN HEROIN-RELATED CASES

Hospital emergency rooms dealt with more heroin-related cases last fall than at any time in the past five years, a federal health agency said Friday.

The hospitals also reported a jump in cocaine-related incidents.

In both instances, the spurt primarily involved drug users 35 and older, according to the latest statistics from the Drug Abuse Warning Network.

The network, which surveys 685 hospitals quarterly, estimated that the emergency rooms dealt with 109,200 drug-related cases in the third quarter of 1992. That was up from 106,000 in the previous quarter.

The 13,400 heroin episodes, up from 10,338 in the third quarter of 1991, were the most since the government began keeping track this way in 1988. There were also 30,900 cocaine-related episodes, up from 28,552 in the third quarter of 1991. - Associated Press

by CNB