NEW YORK (WCBS 880)  -- The picture of heroin is not a homeless person on the streets as Long Island school superintendents learned.  Nassau County Police Department held an informative meeting for school leaders that heroin use is on the rise, and it's being abused by teens in affluent neighborhoods.

Police say there has been an increase, not only in the use of heroin, but in the amount of overdoses.

Reporter Sophia Hall talkes with Police Commissioner Lawerence Mulvey about a code of silence.

'There is a stigma attached to heroin. Heroin now can be snorted, so they don't even encounter the decision of injecting or not - they can snort it. And it's cheap,' said Mulvey.

Mulvey says drugs are costing as little as $7.

The County Health Department's Arlene Sanchez says because heroin is more of a mellowing drug, at first parents may have a tough time knowing their teens are abusing it.

Newsday finds in 2002 there were about 100 heroin possession arrests countywide, last year there were about 150, said Det. Lt. Pete Donohue, deputy commanding officer of Nassau's Narcotics and Vice Squad.