31.   Methadone is the best available treatment in terms of reducing illicit heroin use and associated crime, disease and death.

32.   Most alarming are new trends in heroin use.

33.   Nevertheless, other indicators present compelling evidence that heroin use is rising sharply, and that young people are experimenting with the drug.

34.   Of those, five have relapsed into heroin use, the officials said.

35.   Researchers say there may be some inherent danger in giving prolonged anesthesia to someone whose heart function or body chemistry is already compromised by heroin use.

36.   Some experts also say that a decline in crack use and an increase in heroin use may be another explanation.

37.   That development became interwoven with the flight of manufacturing jobs from the inner cities and the surge in heroin use.

38.   That consequence is minimal compared to the larger problem, particularly since heroin use among young people is growing instead of shrinking.

39.   Ten poor neighborhoods of Dublin and one in Cork are now centers of heroin use and places where drug-related AIDS and hepatitis are considered rampant.

40.   The boyfriend received similar treatment, but had to be hospitalized again after he returned to heroin use.