The all-powerful feeling a rush of heroin induces didn't last long for several recent users. They died.

The drug has killed at least three Utah County residents the past few months, according to the Utah County Narcotics Enforcement Team. A Salt Lake County man died after a heroin injection last month."I think there's an unusual amount of deaths," said Dennis Hansen, director of The Gathering Place, an Orem outpatient drug rehabilitation program.

Natalie Michele Farrer, a 17-year-old Orem girl who died last weekend, could be numbered among them.

Although sheriff's investigators aren't saying what drug or drugs two acquaintances allegedly shot into Farrer's body, heroin is a possibility. Craig Madsen, assistant Utah County attorney, said Wednesday that Farrer received three injections. Other commonly injected street drugs include cocaine and methamphetamine.

Sgt. Jerry Harper, Narcotics Enforcement Team field commander, said drug agents have noticed a surge of heroin into the area. Although they haven't encountered much in their undercover buys, police hear it's out there. Harper said users apparently came into it suddenly.

"They're not knowing how to handle it. They're dying from it," he said.

That has local drug abuse counselors like Hansen on edge.

"Something is happening," Hansen said. He suspects some pure or potent heroin hit the streets and people are taking too much. "We're really concerned."

Harper speculated that a bad batch of heroin might have found its way to Utah County, possibly through Pioneer Park, a known Salt Lake drug bazaar.

Heroin is an expensive narcotic. Harper said a "piece" half the size of a fingernail goes for about $50 on the street. The black tar-like substance usually comes wrapped in paper or aluminum foil and is to be "cooked" before being used. A syringe is used to inject it under the skin or into a muscle or vein.

Unlike cocaine or marijuana, Hansen said, heroin is not the drug most casual users reach for. "It's almost an inner sanctum among drug abuse," he said.

The enforcement team's drug seizures in 1995 seem to bear that out. Utah County drug agents confiscated or bought 920 grams of methamphetamine; 214 grams of cocaine and 88 pounds of marijuana last year. They seized only 2.5 grams of heroin.

Harper said the recent heroin-related deaths are an indicator the drug has become more abundant. Drug abuse of all kinds also appears to be on the rise.

"It's obviously a problem. It seems to be increasing quite a bit. That's what's scary," he said.

Nevertheless, while the rate of use has gone up in Utah County, it's still among the lowest rates in the state, said Pat Fleming, director of the Utah County Division of Substance Abuse.

"In general, we've got a healthy, non-using population," he said.

Teenage drug users are typically those who feel as if they're on the outside of the prevailing culture, he said. Smoking cigarettes, for example, might cause a teenager to drift from a disapproving circle of friends. The new group might be into drinking alcohol, which Fleming said can lead to other drug use.

Hansen said there's no excuse for what Farrer's acquaintances are alleged to have done to her.

"What kind of friends would drop a body off in a parking lot?" he said. "These are no friends."

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Although the Farrer case brings the dangers of drugs to the forefront, Hansen said that when it goes away, people will think the problem has gone with it. Drug use is never safe, he said.

"Do you really want to inject something into your body if you don't know what it is?" Hansen said.

The word heroin comes from hero because of the "feeling of omnipotence experienced while taking the drug," according to the American Heritage Dictionary.

Hansen said young people who use drugs are in denial about the possible consequences. "They think they're immortal."

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