Prosecutor's book illustrates growing heroin problem in Portland

The 39-year-old woman's body was found propped on a folding chair across the street from the Hollywood Public Library.

A garbage can kept her from toppling over as she sat slumped back in the chair, her face turned up to the sky.

Two anonymous 9-1-1 calls sent police looking for a possible overdose in the parking lot. By the time they found her on Aug. 4, Daphne Merdiel Andrews was dead.

Investigators noted that she was partly unclothed. Her pants may have slid down as she was dragged across the parking lot. Or she might have pulled the pants down herself, to inject the heroin that killed her.

Andrews was another sad casualty of heroin's growing grip on Oregon, and part of a problem that a Multnomah County prosecutor says too often goes unnoticed. Heroin killed more people in Oregon last year than methamphetamine and cocaine combined -- and more people than drunken drivers.

"There are so many," said Deputy District Attorney Ryan Lufkin, "I think everyone just got a little complacent."

heroinmugs2.jpgMultnomah prosecutor Ryan Lufkin's binder of heroin overdoses.

Lufkin has set out to track

in Portland and Gresham to raise awareness about the resurgent problem. When he learns of a death, he first searches for a driver's license or Facebook photo to show the heroin user as he or she looked before being dragged down by the drug. Mostly, he finds booking mugs showing faces of people looking ill and disheveled. Each photo he finds goes in a three-ring binder, along with a police report about the death. Since the beginning of 2009, he's compiled the stories of 44 people who've overdosed on heroin.

"I wanted them all to have a face," Lufkin said.

Over the past several months, he's started showing his binder to some of the heroin users he has prosecuted.

Heroin use on the upswing

"I had assumed they'd kind of flip through it and blow it off," said Lufkin. "But they really took their time with it and read the reports."

Lufkin said so far, two addicts have recognized people they had known. One of the defendants wasn't aware that the person in the binder had died.

Among the deaths in Lufkin's binder are

Time and time again, the subjects in the binder were discovered flat on their faces -- a brown-tar-like residue and sometimes a syringe found nearby.

Many died at home, but some were found outside -- on a downtown sidewalk, in a field next to a North Portland elementary school or dumped in a wooded area.

Some of the dead were found in locked public restrooms -- at a Safeway in the Hawthorne district, a Panda Express on North Lombard Street -- after employees noticed they been in there far too long.

Some died so quickly and quietly in the night that those sleeping nearby didn't realize what had happened.

The powerful central-nervous-system depressant had knocked them unconscious and then stopped their breathing.

"It's just lethal," Lufkin said.

Sometimes those close to people who overdose are addicted to heroin themselves and not even seeing death is enough to stop them.

"They're in a position where they simply don't care," Lufkin said. "They order heroin from the same person, just minutes later. Any normal person would be completely afraid of the substance that just killed their partner."

Jail could be factor

The binder also includes some startling statistics. From Lufkin's unscientific tally, 22 percent of those in his binder died within 10 days of being released from the Multnomah County jail system.

He said they were held in jail on drug charges just long enough -- maybe a week, maybe more -- to lose some of their resistance to the drug. When they were released, they went back to using the same amounts they used prior to their arrests.

"That gives you just enough time to get your body a little sober," Lufkin said. "It's the most dangerous couple of days."

He's also cited studies that show the number of per capita opioid (including heroin, oxycodone and methadone) deaths by city. Portland edged out San Francisco in per capita deaths in 2007 and clearly outstripped Seattle, Atlanta and others on the list.

Theories abound as to why. Some say Interstate 5 serves as a direct pipeline from Mexico, where the drugs are produced. Prosecutors argue that Oregon's drug penalties don't allow them to hold addicts long enough to find them a treatment spot or drug dealers long enough to make the convictions sting.

Everyone agrees that heroin is relatively cheap -- as little as $5 is sometimes enough for a hit. But it is also deadly because a tiny amount -- a tenth of a gram -- is enough to get high. When using such small amounts, it's easier to overdose, experts say.

Lufkin hopes his binder will also encourage judges to release heroin addicts to a supervised setting: a responsible family member or county pretrial supervision. Lufkin says someone needs to make sure addicts are showing up for urine tests and drug counseling.

If defendants violate the terms of their probation after being convicted, Lufkin pushes judges to hold them in jail long enough for a drug-treatment bed to open up. Depending on the individual case, that could be days. But more likely, it will be about three months.

Lufkin also hopes his binder of stories will encourage judges to be tougher on heroin dealers.

"We've got very lenient penalties," said prosecutor Mark McDonnell, who supervises Lufkin and the drug unit and applauds Lufkin's efforts. Dealers caught selling less than five grams -- which is enough for 25 hits -- get probation the first four times they're convicted under Oregon's sentencing guidelines, McDonnell noted.

Prosecutor's effort lauded

Lufkin's binder is getting recognition from different corners of the criminal-justice system, including judges, drug-treatment professionals and even defense attorneys who like the goal of getting addicts into treatment.

Multnomah County Judge Youlee You called Lufkin's binder "compelling." She has even cited Lufkin in reminding heroin users that once released from jail, they're at great risk of an overdose.

"I tell them there's a good chance they're going to die," You said.

Although the state made major gains in the fight against heroin starting 1999 -- when 195 people died from heroin overdoses -- the number of deaths started climbing again in 2005.

Last year, 127 people died from overdosing on heroin.

State Medical Examiner Karen Gunson said heroin deaths are a chief reason her office started collecting data on drug overdose deaths.

"We've been trying to bring it to people's attention since 1999," Gunson said.

She says there's value in putting a face to the deaths. Many people don't realize that heroin kills a wide cross section of people. She remembers several years back a man who had died after working out at the exclusive Multnomah Athletic Club.

"It's not just people who are down and out," Gunson said.