Rockers, Models And The New Allure Of Heroin

Despite all this, heroin's rep soars. People mistakenly think that it's not addictive if they snort it or smoke it. ""In L.A., people are doing it on a real casual basis,'' says Rollins. ""Like, "Oh, me and my girlfriend did heroin this weekend.' Like it's a trip. Like it's a vacation. And I'm looking at them, going, "Are you out of your f-ing mind?' ''

The fear is that the drug is becoming just another trend. ""You got a million needles tattooing kids,'' says singer Exene Cervenka. ""You got a million needles piercing their ears, piercing their noses, piercing their lips. You got a million needles shooting drugs into their veins. And to them it's all the same thing. I don't think kids can differentiate between behaviors.'' The streets of Seattle are cluttered with kids who've moved there to do heroin, just because Cobain did -- and this at a time when people in the Seattle music scene claim drug use among musicians is tapering off. Singer-songwriter Paul K, who's been clean for six years, finds the ""I have to do it because Keith Richards/Lou Reed/Kurt Cobain did it'' excuse pretty lame. ""It's like buying Paul Newman's salad dressing,'' he says. ""Have you tasted it? I mean, it's not very good.'' But even he admits the power of a junkie idol. When did he start using? ""Probably the day I put down "The Basketball Diaries'.''

Unfortunately, cool images in books, movies and magazines don't jibe with the reality of addiction. While Sid Vicious was being mythologized as junk's favorite casualty in the '80s, Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones was strung out on the streets of L.A. ""I lost everything, financially and emotionally,'' he says. ""Lost everything. I was literally walking up and down Hollywood Boulevard with one pair of jeans and one pair of tennis shoes, looking to steal a handbag off some old lady to get another fix.'' With the help of a 12-step program, Jones cleaned up 12 years ago. And even when the images are negative -- ""Trainspotting'' conscientiously focuses on the drug's unglamorous side -- the degradation can be part of the appeal. ""It has to do with being young and self-destructive,'' says Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar, who quit using three years ago. ""It's got the reputation as the meanest, dirtiest drug -- which I would not necessarily agree with, because I've seen them all destroy people. But it's got that death tag on it. It's as bad as you want to get.''

And once someone is addicted, it doesn't matter who He IS.

""An addict is an addict,'' says Dave Navarro, guitarist for Red Hot Chili Peppers. Clean for four and a half years, Navarro used heroin while in Jane's Addiction, an influential first-wave alternative band. But he started long before that. ""When my mother died when I was 15, I discovered I didn't feel it as badly when I was loaded.'' People speculate that the pressures of success and touring contributed to the deaths of Cobain and Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon, but Navarro says it works the other way around. ""In Jane's Addiction I felt very unsure, very uncomfortable,'' he says. ""By the time we were successful I was so down in the depths of despair that I didn't experience any of it. Perhaps the level of success we did reach enabled me to get through the destructive side of my use quicker, because I was able to spend more money and go down faster. Whereas who knows how many years it would have gone on had my habit been $50 a day?''

Recovery has allowed Navarro to see his addiction in clear terms. ""Heroin ruined my dreams,'' he says. ""It made my work life an unhappy experience. Basically turned the one thing that I had worked my whole life for into the thing I wanted to get away from most.'' He tried to detox several times before entering a long-term rehab program after Jane's Addiction broke up in 1991. ""Being in the Chili Peppers, I'm able to experience what I'm doing,'' he says. ""I'm able to be present for it. And happy with what I'm doing for the most part. I would never trade that feeling for anything in the world. It's a long road, but it's well worth it. At least it was for me.''