Pubdate: Fri, 14 Jan 2005
Source: Daily News of Newburyport (MA)
Copyright: 2005 Essex County Newspapers, Inc
Contact:  http://www.newburyportnews.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/693
Author: Sean Corcoran
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

OPIATES IN OUR TOWNS: SHERIFF'S HEROIN FORUM
DRAWS A PACKED HOUSE

NORTH ANDOVER - More than 500 people packed a gymnasium at Merrimack 
College yesterday, driven to learn more about the county's heroin and 
prescription drug  epidemic.

There was so much interest in the event that some people were turned away 
at the door. "It really shows that people realize the problem we have, and 
it really shows a community response to the problem," said District 
Attorney Jonathan Blodgett,  who planned the event with Sheriff Frank 
Cousins of Newburyport. Both Blodgett and Cousins said they were pleased 
the room was filled with people from a variety of backgrounds - parents, 
teachers, principals and doctors - not just police.

Cousins said heroin has become cheap - $4 - and far more potent. Heroin 
overdoses have been reported in all 34 Essex County communities, and at 
least two Newburyporters have been jailed for possession.

Among the dignitaries at the event was Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey. Healey said 
the governor's office has taken notice of the heroin problem - 58 Essex 
County residents died of overdoses in 2001, many of them youths. Healey 
promised that the governor's next budget would include additional dollars 
for treatment, dollars that were cut during the state's budget crisis. No 
one claimed to have the final solution, but after listening to speakers 
discuss the toll the drugs are taking on Essex County, participants said 
they were committed to working as a community to make people aware of the 
problem and  end the crisis.

One parent there was Charles Rosa, a West Peabody father who has lost two 
sons to heroin overdoses - 20-year-old Vincent, who died Oct. 29, 2003, and 
23-year-old Domenic, who died last November. Rosa carries laminated 
pictures of both sons inside a tattered plastic baggy he keeps in his 
pocket. Rosa has four children remaining, he said, including twin 
8-year-old boys. When he asked them what they wanted for Christmas this 
year, one of them said, "I want my brothers back."

"I can't bury another kid," Rosa said. "I have to continue for my kids and 
the others that look up to me, but it's hard. ... It never goes away. You 
wake up thinking about it, you go to bed thinking about it." Rosa was not 
certain what he would get out of the conference, but he hoped he would meet 
someone that would give him an opportunity to make a difference in  the 
region's drug fight.

That fight is centered on the area's cheap and powerful heroin. During the 
past few years, it has become clear to law enforcement and medical 
professionals that young people are becoming hooked on opiate-based 
prescription  drugs such as OxyContin, and then moving on to heroin, which 
at less than $10 a  bag is cheaper, more readily available and so pure it 
can be sniffed. Last year, there were nearly 5,000 admissions to Essex 
County treatment facilities for heroin and other opiate abuse, said Dr. 
Stephen Valle, president of ADCARE Criminal Justice Services. At least 8 
percent of the admissions were people between the ages of 18 and 20.

"We can talk about and discuss all the indicators and statistics that 
describe this heroin epidemic," said George Festa, director of the federal 
government's local drug trafficking office. "But we must never forget 
that  heroin abusers are individuals and heroin abuse not only affects the 
individual  user, but the user's family, friends, community and society as 
a whole." But during a panel discussion, Valle noted that even before the 
budget cuts began in 2002, state treatment centers already were 
under-budgeted and treatment  beds were at a premium.

"We must recognize that the (spending) base we are trying to get back to 
was the base that was inadequate five years ago," Valle said. "What we need 
to do is  start treating (addiction) as a disease. No other disease in 
America will you  get so many blocks and challenges to getting care as you 
will an addiction  problem."

Healey said the state plans to address a problem several speakers touched 
upon: There is no way to measure how many fatal and nonfatal overdoses 
occur in the state because hospitals typically do not release that 
information to law enforcement.

Even during the panel discussion, law officers and treatment specialists 
disagreed on whether it was appropriate for hospitals to call police when 
an overdose patient comes in for treatment.

Healey said that in two months, the state Department of Public Health will 
begin a program where hospitals give daily reports on how many overdose 
incidents they have treated. She compared the new "early warning system" 
with  those already in place for infectious diseases.

But overwhelmingly, the most common theme of the day was the importance of 
education when it comes to preventing young people from trying these drugs 
in the first place.

There appeared to be agreement that schools are no longer doing enough to 
educate students about the dangers of drug use. That has to change. "We 
eliminated DARE in our schools because somebody decided it was too 
expensive or ineffective. But what do we replace it with? Nothing?" said 
officer Larry Wentzell, the student resource officer in Lynn. There may be 
problems with resources and getting access to treatment beds, said Paula 
Perlmutter, an outreach worker at the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse 
Research at Children's Hospital in Boston, "but what we do have is 
people  - neighbors and friends who have faced this problem and overcome 
it. "Often we complicate things, but it comes down to one human being 
helping another human being."
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