Lance Rice started his last day in Franklin County on a scarred, wooden bench in the Greenfield courthouse. He was waiting for his probation officer to call him in for his third drug screening of the week.

“At this point, I hate coming here. I’m here all the time,” said Rice. “But today will be the last time I’m here for a long time.”

A friend sitting nearby glared at him; Rice corrected himself.

“I plan to never be here again.”

Four months earlier, Rice, 23, was led down this hallway in handcuffs and shackles through a gauntlet of spectators from Turners Falls. The picturesque former milltown of 4,500 people, nestled in the Berkshire foothills, had been racked by a string of burglaries over the past year, and Rice was a prime suspect.

Rice is both a victim and perpetrator of what police are calling a heroin epidemic in rural Western Massachusetts. Narcotics investigators say that in the past three to five years they have watched the drug move from big cities to small towns, where their Main Streets have been hit by a wave of crime….