Where do you think you'd find the best heroin?

"You can't buy any better heroin in the world than you can buy in New Jersey," said Michael Pasterchick, special agent in charge of the Newark DEA office.

I so wish I was making this up. I just read that and I turned into this :lol .

Dec 12, 2004 2:44 pm US/Eastern

(1010 WINS) (TRENTON) New Jersey's heroin was found to be the purest in the nation for the second straight year, a dubious distinction causing an array of health and treatment challenges.

Federal Drug Enforcement Agency tests of heroin samples obtained from New Jersey streets showed 71.4 percent purity in 2002, nearly twice the national average. In the 2003 report, due out soon, New Jersey again will hold the top spot, DEA spokesman Rusty Payne told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

"You can't buy any better heroin in the world than you can buy in New Jersey," said Michael Pasterchick, special agent in charge of the Newark DEA office.

The average purity of samples taken in 2002 in Philadelphia was 66.3 percent, in New York 61.5 percent, in Baltimore 22.9 percent, and in San Francisco 12.1 percent, according to the DEA.

The high purity is the result of New Jersey being the first stop for many drug traffickers. So the heroin on state streets has not been diluted with additives or resold.

That causes an array of problems for law enforcement and health officials. Purer heroin means more overdoses, and it makes kicking the habit more difficult.

"If word gets out two people overdosed because of the stuff they got from me, I'm going to have a line of buyers down the street," said Ed Higgins, head of the state Coalition of Methadone Programs.

The new heroin is pure enough to be snorted or smoked, which makes it more attractive to younger people.

"The clinical community just doesn't have any scientifically tested methods for treating this emerging cohort of 13- to 18-yer-old heroin users," said Lisa Marsch of the National Development and Research Institute.

Authorities cited two reasons for the recent surge in heroin purity and popularity: Colombians moving into the heroin business to avoid the U.S. government's crackdown on cocaine production; and a 36-fold increase in Afghani poppy production since the ouster of the Taliban after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The United States, meanwhile, shifted its law enforcement focus from drugs to terrorism.

The Newark DEA has made the drug its top priority, devoting half its manpower to root out heroin dealers. Its heroin seizures have increased 600 percent in the past five years, Pasterchick said.

(? MMIV Infinity Broadcasting Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. In the interest of timeliness, this story is fed directly from the newswire and may contain occasional typographical errors.)

I think this guy spent too much time in Jersey.