Heroin

The availability and abuse of heroin are limited in the CNMI. The small amounts of Southeast Asian heroin that are available typically are consumed by tourists, not residents. There is no evidence of heroin addiction among the CNMI resident population.

Southeast Asian heroin is the most common type of heroin available in the CNMI. Since the 1970s the Guam Crime Laboratory, the only laboratory in the area that analyzes and identifies drugs, has examined heroin samples from the CNMI and identified all of them as Southeast Asian heroin.

Heroin sells for $35 to $50 per gram at the retail level in the commonwealth. Current information regarding the purity of the heroin distributed in the CNMI is not available.

According to USSC data, from FY1996 through FY2001 there was only one federal sentence (in FY1998) for heroin-related violations in the CNMI. There is no evidence to link heroin distribution or abuse with violent crime in the CNMI.

There is no available information regarding the individuals or groups involved in retail-level heroin distribution in the CNMI. However, the Asian criminal groups that distribute crystal methamphetamine in the CNMI likely are involved, at least to some extent, in heroin distribution.

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