More 18- to 25-year-olds in New Jersey are using Heroin compared with their counterparts nationwide, according to a report released Monday.

Heroin abuse is higher in New Jersey than in the rest of the country, with data showing that young adults were more than twice as likely to try Heroin than their peers in other states, according to the 2003 New Jersey Household Survey on Drug Use and Health.

"Heroin is the drug of choice in New Jersey," said James Davy, the state Department of Human Services commissioner.

Davy, whose department commissioned the report, said the Heroin problem is compounded by the fact that New Jersey residents have lagged behind the rest of the nation in getting treatment.

To help ensure such treatment, Davy announced that the state would open two new Methadone clinics in Ocean and Gloucester counties by the end of the year. Methadone is a synthetic drug used to treat narcotics addiction. The clinics, which will each cost about $350,000 to open, would serve approximately 400 to 500 people annually.

"Access and attention are the biggest predictors of success," said Carolann Kane-Cavaiola, assistant commissioner of the state Division of Addiction Services.

In the past, Kane-Cavaiola said, "there was a lack of action, but there was also a lack of dollars."

The 2003 survey, the most recent available, interviewed 14,660 New Jersey adults between September 2002 and February 2003. Kane-Cavaiola said the data take several months to cull and analyze.

She said that Ocean and Gloucester counties were selected for the clinic sites because they had a slightly higher number of addicts, according to the survey.

The survey also found that:

* Overall Alcohol use decreased slightly in New Jersey, with 91 percent of adults reporting the use of Alcohol in 1998 to 87 percent in 2003.

* The proportion of residents reporting use of illegal drugs in the previous year decreased from 9 percent in 1998 to 6 percent in 2003.

* Heroin was the only drug reported at a higher frequency by 18- to 25-year-old New Jerseyans than Americans nationwide; 5 percent of New Jersey residents and 2 percent of Americans reported Heroin use.

Kane-Cavaiola said there are several reasons that Heroin has become the drug of choice in New Jersey, including the state's proximity to New York City, heroin's purity and the fact that it is cheap compared with other drugs, such as methamphetamine.

Because of heroin's purity, more young people are choosing to snort it rather than inject it, which has led to its appeal, Kane-Cavaiola added.