Pubdate: Mon, 10 Jan 2005
Source: Gloucester Daily Times (MA)
Copyright: 2005 Essex County Newspapers, Incorporated.
Contact: http://www.salemnews.com/email/#Editor-g
Website: http://www.gloucestertimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/169
Author: Alan  Burke

FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES

The new scourge of cheap heroin has police, educators and  social workers
shaking their heads. And it has those parents who aren't crying  over the
loss of a child wondering whether their son or daughter could be next.

The problem of opiate addiction, the subject of a two-part series that
appeared in the Eagle-Tribune newspapers last week, demands our attention
and action. It won't just go away. Indeed, Essex County District Attorney
Jonathan Blodgett and others in law enforcement say the low prices at which
heroin is  sold on the street today is simply part of the dealers' business
plan. Once  enough people are hooked, the cost will go up -- bringing a new
spiral of crime  and hurt. What's required now is a multi-pronged assault
not only on the drug-sellers, but on a culture that has come to expect a
solution for every problem in a bottle of pills and the kind of pressures
that prompt young people to seek escape in mind-altering substances.

As last week's stories made all too clear, this problem is not confined to
any one community or any single demographic. And the crime it spawns as
addicts seek the cash with which to feed their habit, can touch anyone at
any time in  any place.

"I'm scared," Blodgett declared. And the stories related of lives lost,
families split apart and youthful potential squandered, should frighten us
all. The numbers tell part of the story: * 300 -- the percentage increase in
the number of opiate overdoses in Essex County over the last 10 years.

* 39 -- the number of fatal drug overdoses in Essex County in 2003,
according to figures obtained by filing Freedom of Information requests with
area police departments.

* 350 -- the number of people served by a Peabody methadone clinic that
expected to have 180 clients when it opened two years ago. * $1 billion --
the amount of legally prescribed OxyContin sold in 2001. * 2.8 million --
the number of people who admitted using OxyContin for nonmedical reasons in
2003, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network. But much more powerful
are the words of those whom this epidemic has impacted directly. "I cashed
in the trust of my family. I pawned my freedom." -- Former Peabody High
School honor student and class treasurer Andrew Moskovitch, who related his
battle with OxyContin addiction to reporter Paul Leighton. "Bye, mom."

- -- Four-year-old Nickolas after visiting the grave of his mother who died at
28 years of age from a lethal overdose of heroin and cocaine. "It's getting
to be like coke when it came on the scene in the early 1980s to mid-80s.
That's where we're at with heroin today. It's here. You have to deal  with
it."

- -- Haverhill Police Sgt. John Arahovites. The stories related in the series
told of pain, of hope, and of the reluctance of some to acknowledge the
extent of the problem Education is paramount, and Blodgett, with Essex
County Sheriff Frank G. Cousins and others, will kick off a regional
awareness effort Thursday with an all-day program for school, medical and
law enforcement personnel at Merrimack College in North Andover.

In too many cases, police, teachers, even parents, would prefer to ignore or
rationalize kids' involvement with drugs. That doesn't help; and neither
will the decriminalization of marijuana laws, favored by voters in a
nonbinding referendum on several area ballots last November. Most in law
enforcement insist  that drug is a gateway to experimentation with more
harmful substances. Continued police pressure on those who would profit from
the sale of illegal substances is also essential. Mayors and selectmen
should make sure local departments have the resources needed to combat this
nefarious trade. But there was near universal agreement that the most
effective way to address this epidemic is to do everything possible to
remove the demand for opiates. Frighteningly, experts say even one taste of
concentrated OxyContin is enough to  get you hooked.

Parents -- "the anti-drug," according to one public service advertising
campaign currently airing -- face a formidable task these days. But the
fight against this epidemic must begin in the home. It must be waged by
parents who make it their business to know what their children are doing and
who they are hanging out with -- not because they're nosy, but because they
care.
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