For the past year, state police at the Westminster barracks have seen a surge in Carroll residents snorting powder cocaine.

The number of people in Carroll County seeking treatment for cocaine abuse jumped from 150 in fiscal 2004 to 217 in fiscal 2006, according to the Maryland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration.

Residents trying to quit smoking crack jumped from 164 in fiscal year 2004 to 212 in fiscal 2006.

Cocaine is a cyclical drug, said Erin Artigiani, deputy director for policy at the Center for Substance Abuse Research at the University of Maryland, College Park.

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“This new generation may be more willing to try it because they haven’t seen a popular athlete or musician die from it,” she said.

Over the past three years, Carroll drug counselors have seen the number of patients fighting addictions to prescription drugs, particularly OxyContin and Vicodin, jump from 1 percent to 5 percent, said Susan Doyle, addictions bureau director for the Carroll County Health Department.

More high school and college students are abusing prescription medicine because they believe it’s safer than illicit drugs, Artigiani said.

While heroin still gives the state police “the most headaches,” state police Sgt. George Frazier said, but statistics show heroin abuse has declined slightly.

The number of heroin-related treatment center admissions dropped from 316 in fiscal 2005 to 295 in fiscal 2006 after a five-year low in fiscal 2004, with 229 patients.

Today’s average age of drug treatment patients is 36, older than the teens and 20-somethings swept up in the heroin wave of the 1990s that led residents to call Carroll “Heroin County.”

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com