Pubdate: Sun, 02 Oct 2005
Source: Metrowest Daily News (MA)
Copyright: 2005 MetroWest Daily News
Contact:  http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/619
Author: Julia  Spitz
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

DRUG PROBLEM HIDES AMONG THE MUNDANE

We've got numbers. We just don't have statistics.

"It's right  under your nose, but you can't see it," said State Police
Lt. Dennis Brooks.

As leader  of the Middlesex District Attorney's office special
investigations unit, he's  trained to notice drug deals going down.
He's also  trained to notice shifts in drug use.

He can tell  you how many methamphetamine labs have been discovered in
the region this year.  Three. One in Lowell, one in Everett, one in
Chelmsford. He can tell  you "New England is the number one region for
heroin addicts" and "the  traditional cocaine and heroin routes are
clearly entrenched here." He can tell  you "most of your heroin
addicts out there are 18 to 25." And he can tell you  "it's just sad
to see a whole new generation of addicts." But drug  dealers don't
release quarterly sales reports, police don't know about every  user,
and hospitals don't have to report all overdoses to police. That makes
  it hard to see the big picture.

What's out  there? What's changed in the past year or two, since we
first noticed our  suburban high schoolers turning to heroin because
it was cheap and easy to get?

"The  biggest things right now are Ecstacy and Oxy(Contin)," said Bill
Phillips,  president of New Beginnings, a Framingham-based
"comprehensive wellness education initiative for schools, parents and
the community." "Things go  in cycles," said Phillips. When parents,
police and school officials take the  heroin threat seriously, "heroin
goes down" but cocaine use goes up. Alcohol and  pot are a constant.

"Kids don't  think beer and pot are dangerous," said Phillips. Then
there  are "over-the-counter drugs, Coricidin, cough medicines." Kids
"go in there, get  a bottle of NyQuil, chug it down. Kids are chewing
five or six (Coricidin pills)  and buzzing their brains out." Even
alcohol-heavy vanilla extract can be used as  a drug. "Kids chug it
down and it smells like they've had the best breath mint  in the world."

But how can  you measure how much vanilla extract is going into cakes
and how much is going  into kids' mouths nationwide?

Local cops  can tell you what's on the streets. "We see a  lot of
crack," said Marlborough Detective Sgt. Stephen McCurley. "It's gone
back  from powder cocaine to crack."

Heroin use  has also increased, "which has a huge effect on crime in
the city," he said.  Crack and heroin addicts need money to feed their
habit, bringing more  burglaries and armed robberies.

In Ashland,  "what's mainly used here is marijuana and cocaine," said
Police Chief Roy  Melnick.

"We still  see some marijuana, some cocaine, crack, some heroin," said
Milford Chief Thomas  O'Loughlin. But if there's a trend in Milford,
it's less marijuana and "more of  the harder drugs," he said, and
they're "very inexpensive and much more potent."

Down the  road, "our guys are coming in with a lot of marijuana
arrests," said Franklin  Deputy Police Chief Stephan Semerjian.
"Marijuana and alcohol." "Marijuana,  in the past, it was get the
giggles, get a Number 2 Meal at McDonald's," said  Phillips, the
Framingham counselor. Now, "it's psychoactive. It's a higher grade  of
marijuana."

"Marijuana  is the most frequent drug found" by police in Sudbury,
said Detective Sgt. John  Harris.

Framingham  and Blackstone police both said there's heroin, marijuana
and cocaine around.

"We'd be  sticking our head in the sand if we said it isn't around
here," said Holliston  Chief James Peterson.

"The sad  reality is anything you want is available," said Franklin's
Semerjian. "You go to  any barroom in America and someone will hook
you up," said Brooks. So what's  the answer?

Like the  figures on drugs, there isn't one. There are
many.

Brooks  likes Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey's proposal to require hospitals to
report all  overdoses to the state, "so we can get a true picture of
what's going on." Phillips  would like more education and support
programs. "The whole  thing is prevention and education," he said. "It
takes  everyone" to fight drugs, said Brooks.

It takes  parents. It takes police. It takes programs in schools and
laws on the books  that make it tougher on drug dealers and easier for
those who sincerely want  help.

But the  first step in the fight is to realize how big the problem is.
Every  addiction "affects nine or 10 people in the family," said
Brooks. Add in the  crime victims.

That adds  up to a pretty big problem indeed.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake