Then again, some folks insist that the drug problem in Gloucester is no worse than it is anywhere else—it’s just that it’s now being talked about more. But out on the avenue it feels like there’s one big hypodermic needle ready to plunge into Gloucester’s mainline. A haystack of needles everywhere. A 15-year-old boy walks into McDonald’s and threatens an employee and a 10-year-old customer. His weapon: a hypodermic needle. A 34-year-old homeless man is arrested on Saturday night.
The charge: illegal possession of a hypodermic needle. Police respond to a domestic disturbance. When they arrive, a guy’s got his girlfriend pinned to the floor. As a cop bends down to see how she is, she tries to bite his leg. The boyfriend interferes, gets nailed for disturbing the peace. Cops open a drawer, they don’t find a copy of Reader’s Digest. They find a needle and a syringe. Wherever people are hooked on needles, you’ll find hookers, many of whom are working to support their habit. Some connect in the bars, like the one who, after reportedly soliciting a guy for sex, allegedly stole $270 from him as he was taking a bath. Others reportedly quietly work Rogers Street, jumping into truck cabs to service guys who are in town to pick up loads of fish. Morin fears that in this way Gloucester could become a national center for the spread of AIDS.
(There are 72 cases of AIDS in Essex Country, which includes 33 cities and towns besides Gloucester. Although there is no official tally for Gloucester, Morin says his unofficial street count showed 12 AIDS cases in the city.)
The city’s two-man drug unit, Inspector Kenny Ryan and Sergeant Michael McLeod, a/k/a the Dynamic Duo, a/k/a Batman and Robin, seem to be busting people left, right, and center. During a raid on a Washington Street apartment, police burst in on a threesome with their sleeves rolled up, ready to shoot heroin. A 28-year old woman driving a station wagon into town was stopped by police who were acting on a tip; she was arrested after some heroin was found concealed in her underwear. Traffic was backed up on Washington Street for eight minutes one afternoon in March as police tried to subdue a suspected drug dealer in the middle of the street. As Ryan tackled the guy in the road, he tried to stop him from swallowing something. A plastic bag containing heroin, Ryan said. “Spit it out, spit it out,” Ryan yelled. But it was too late. McLeod reported: “I could see the plastic bag in his teeth, but he swallowed it.” The guy was arrested anyway, charged with conspiracy to violate the drug laws.
They work 60 hours a week, 90 percent of it on heroin cases, says Ryan, who’s been a cop for 20 years, 11 of them working on drugs. In 1987 the narcotics division made 87 heroin arrests, seizing 1020 bags of H valued at $50,000. In ’86 it made 31 busts for heroin, seizing 232 bags of scag valued at $11,000.
Contrary to popular Boston myth, the heroin is not coming into Gloucester over the high seas. According to Ryan, 75 to 85 percent of the dope being shot in Gloucester comes from Providence, Rhode Island (which gets it from New York.) Gloucester junkies are also making day trips (sometimes two times a day) to pick up dope in Lowell, Chelsea, even Mission Hill, $25 to $30 a bag. Out-of-town dealers are now working Gloucester. The reason: smackeroos. You can drive to Providence, cop a quantity of heroin at $11 a bag. Because demand is so high, the same bag will sell for $50 on the streets of Gloucester, twice the price as in Roxbury. The average junkie’s shooting three to five bags a day, dealing small-time just to maintain his habit.
Ryan has busted housewives and fisherman, 18-year-olds, and 40-year-olds who were a part of the old heroin crew who beat feet out of Gloucester when the heat got heavy in the ‘70s and are now back in town. He has seen heroin run through the veins of an entire family, four boys and two girls, some of whom he’s arrested four or five times. He has been bitten by a female junkie as he tried to stop her from swallowing some evidence and had to be tested for AIDS. While on the force he has seen maybe 40 people die from heroin, one of them a family friend. But the cop working the drug beat has to keep on walking. “I never get personally involved,” he says. “It’s just part of the job. You’ll see all kinds of death. Murders, suicides, sometimes heads shot off. I’m not here to philosophize about Gloucester’s drug problem. I’m here to do a job…In order for heroin to thrive, when one heroin addict dies, somebody takes his place. Drugs are here to stay. They won’t go away. You just can’t let it get to the point where there are open street sales and people dropping dead every other week.”