MADISON, Wis. -- Madison police and drug addiction experts said on Monday that they believe a rise in petty theft and robberies in the city can be linked to an epidemic in heroin and opiate-related drug abuse.

Police, drug detectives and a counselor from Tellurian UCAN Inc. a drug addiction treatment agency, spoke about the crime numbers at a press conference on Thursday morning.

Overall, new crime statistics for the city of Madison show violent crime and property crime are both down for the first three quarters of 2009 compared to the same period last year. Violent crime is down 9 percent and property crime overall is down more than 10 percent, according to the statistics.

But theft numbers overall in the period are up 2.5 percent and in the month of September, the city saw more robberies than in any other month in the last two years, authorities said.

Police said that they believe a large number of the city's robberies are connected to heroin/opiate addiction as addicts steal to feed their habit.

They said that they are alarmed by a large increase in young people using and dying from heroin and/or opiate use over the last two years. Drug experts said heroin and opiates like OxyContin pills have become the "new" party drug for many young people and high school students. Often, they said that the addict starts by raiding parents' medicine cabinets and then quickly progress to heroin, which is readily available on the street.

"They morph from parties where they share a variety of medications stolen from our medicine cabinets, to buying into larger quantities, to buying heroin from dealers on the street in about two years or less," said Tellurian president Michael Florek.

Florek said that without more efforts, "there will be a lot more deaths in our community," and called it an "epidemic."

Florek said he used to get two to three calls a week for heroin/opiate-related addiction and now is getting 15 to 20 calls a week from families "desperate" for help with their addicted children.

He said at the time that heroin/opiate addiction is rocketing upward, treatment options are limited for those with no health insurance. County slots for low-income people now have a two-month waiting list.

Officials with the Dane County Gang and Drug Task Force said that so far in 2009, the county has seen 109 overdoses from heroin/opiate use and 15 people have died.

Former Addict Shares Story

Experts said that young people using the drugs think they're just a quick high and not dangerous. But one former addict who shared her story with WISC-TV said she knows just how dangerous it can be.

A young Mount Horeb woman said she went from using OxyContin for a torn rotator cuff, to massive amounts of the pills, to snorting and then shooting up deadly heroin just to get through the day.

"It got to the point where I had to use heroin in the morning just to take a shower, just to be able to function," said Katie McGaw, 24, a recovering heroin/opiate addict.

McGaw said she's seen the use of the drugs become more common.

"It's changed since from my freshman year until now. And even my freshman year to my senior year, people went from smoking pot to shooting heroin. I mean, it's like a epidemic," McGaw said.

McGaw is now getting help. Due to a probation violation the court ordered her sent to Tellurian drug treatment clinic instead of to jail.

It's a shot at a new life she almost lost after getting hooked on OxyContin painkiller pills and shooting up $300 a day of heroin for two straight years.

"I actually died. One day I shot up in my boyfriend's bed and I guess I turned blue and fell out of the bed and I guess he was pounding on my chest to keep me alive. I had just shot too much heroin," McGaw said. "I was slowly killing myself. I mean heroin is such a horrible drug to get addicted to because you have to use it."

McGaw said she knew six people who died in the last year using or trying to buy OxyContin or heroin.

Because she knows the intense addiction of heroin and opiates, and the intense danger, she said she wants other young people to know it's more than a quick high, and that once they're addicted, people can easily lose everything, even their life.

"You can lose your friends. You can lose your family. You can die. I mean you can shoot heroin one time and die," McGaw said.

McGaw said she has a "completely" new life now, though. Thanks to treatment, she said she's now reunited with her parents, brother and sister, is working and hopes someday to become a social worker.