Pubdate: Tue, 27 Apr 2004
Source: The Patriot Ledger (MA)
Copyright: 2004 The Patriot Ledger
Contact:  http://ledger.southofboston.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1619
Author: John Zaremba
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

JAIL MAY BE BEST FOR TEENS ON HEROIN

Many Say Arresting Young Drug Users Is Often the Best Treatment

STOUGHTON - Heroin's grip on adolescent addicts is so strong - and 
treatment is so scarce - that families are being forced to have young users 
arrested just to get them help, South Shore law-enforcement officials say. 
Cheap, potent, and sometimes easier to get than a six-pack of beer, heroin 
is hooking South Shore teens as young as 12 or 13. A dramatic drop in state 
funding for teenage rehab centers has compounded the problem. Turning in 
young drug users, especially those young enough to go to juvenile court, is 
among the best treatment available, according to prosecutors, police and 
the mother of a heroin addict who spoke at Stoughton High School last night.

"I arrest early, and I arrest often," said Stoughton police juvenile 
officer Robert Devine, who patrols the town's O'Donnell Middle School. 
"Once your kids hit 17, they're adults. They're going to adult court. 
They're going to be treated like adults."

While adult court often brings mandatory prison sentences for heroin 
offenders, juvenile court "is all about helping them," Devine said. Several 
parents and officials in attendance cited a story in yesterday's Ledger 
that documented the struggle parents of addicted teens face in finding 
in-patient help.

Legislators have cut the state's spending on treatment centers by one-third 
since fiscal 2002, despite warnings of an epidemic.

Massachusetts spent $33.8 million on substance abuse treatment in fiscal 
2003, down from $48 million in fiscal 2002.

Inpatient treatment clinics have been rendered "woefully inadequate," 
Norfolk District Attorney William Keating said. "There are hardly enough." 
The Ledger story showed only 10 long-term beds are available for teens on 
the South Shore and none for girls. Statewide, there are less than 50 beds 
in three facilities for adolescent females, creating months-long waiting 
lists for desperate parents.

Youngsters start smoking marijuana around age 11 and try heroin soon after. 
The heroin being smuggled into New England is potent enough to snort rather 
than inject, freeing the drug of its back-alley stigma and masking its 
danger, Devine said.

"When it's snortable, they think it's harmless," he said. And while not 
every teen who tries marijuana ends up using heroin, "every heroin user was 
a marijuana user," he said.

At $4 a dose, they get hooked and often turn to stealing from their homes 
and committing other crimes to finance their addictions, he said. The ones 
who are arrested have a chance to recover, he said, but that chance 
dwindles when parents hire defense attorneys to have the charges dismissed, 
he said. "It sounds awful, (but) the worst thing a parent can do if a kid 
gets locked up is to get them off," Devine said.

Getting caught and incarcerated basically saved Joanne Peterson's son, who 
became addicted at 19 after snorting heroin with a friend's father. 
Peterson, of Raynham, said she could barely stand to see him in jail, but 
she said the penal system was the only thing that helped him kick the 
habit. He's been clean for a year, she said, but she still fears that he'll 
relapse. "I wake up every morning scared to death that we're going back 
there," said Peterson, who asked Keating if she could speak during the 
forum. "We're not prepared for this," she said. "The numbers are 
staggering." The forum gave a bleak but important glimpse of the problem, 
parents said. "The message was, you have to let go and let them hit 
bottom," said Jeannine Wilson, of Middleboro.

She attended the forum with a friend, Barbara Buckley, who has a 
14-year-old son much like Peterson's - a well-behaved, athletic boy. 
Buckley said she doesn't suspect that he's using heroin, but she said 
she'll follow the subtle warning signs, such as doodling in his school 
notebooks. "Everybody always says, not my kid, not my son," she said. The 
forum was the latest in a series Keating's office has scheduled to address 
the crisis.

Stoughton police have arrested 12 youths on heroin charges in the past 10 
months, Police Chief Manuel Cachopa said, but that doesn't mean the town's 
heroin problem is any worse than other communities.

The mere fact that Stoughton's police and schools scheduled the discussion 
shows that they're trying to confront the problem, Keating said. "I'm proud 
that Stoughton has enough courage to hold this forum on a problem many 
communities want to shy away from," he said, drawing applause from the 
audience of about 100. "We're not going to bury our heads in the sand." 
Audience members asked questions and raised issues. They did not identify 
themselves.

Last night's lessons were alarming for a Canton woman who came to find help 
for her goddaughter, who is 19 and hooked on heroin. "I felt that (they 
said) the only alternative is the court system, and that's what we're 
trying to avoid," she said.

Her goddaughter, who lives in Boston, hasn't been arrested, but that may 
not be a good thing, the woman said.

"It's like a catch-22. You want to keep them out of the court system," she 
said. "She's real young. And her life is falling apart."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake