Maine's Growing Drug Problem

Although York, Maine is a resort town with a 350-year old history, the past five years have seen a dramatic--and often traumatic--upswing in cocaine and heroin abuse. In 2004, when the heroin-induced death of 17-year-old Bethany Fritz sent shockwaves through the small town, York's police department did not even have a full-time narcotics investigator. "If you had asked me back then how many teenagers were using heroin, I'd have said very few and I couldn't name one. Today, I can name 20," says Tom Cyran, the detective on Bethany's case. Often working undercover, Cyran is now part of the new Seacoast Narcotics Interdiction Force, which investigates both cocaine and heroin rings. But the problem is more a war than a battle: as Dr. Patrick Maidman of an addiction treatment center in Maine said, "We're not able to manage the volume of people looking for help."