Pubdate: Wed, 01 Oct 2014
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2014 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Wendy Worell

WITH NO CLUE ABOUT ILLS OF ADDICTION, POLICE SHOULD NOT TOY WITH STUDENTS

UMass Amherst will review a campus police program that uses students 
as confidential drug informants, following a report on an informant's 
fatal heroin overdose.

I was so incensed after reading the front-page story Sunday about the 
UMass Amherst police using students caught with drugs as so-called 
informers ("Hooked. Terrified. Trapped," Page A1, Sept. 28). This 
particular young man died. My heart breaks for his young life and for 
his family. This should not have happened, and I hope his family 
pursues this case on behalf of their son.

I have worked with those who are addicted to heroin for years. It is 
the scourge of our young, and it is killing them in record numbers. 
Clearly the campus police need some major awareness training about 
addiction in general, and the depths-of-hell grips of heroin in 
particular. If, as chief deputy Patrick Archbald said, they "believed 
what he was telling them" when this poor kid said he did not have a 
drug problem and did not want help, then they have no real 
understanding of addiction and have no business doing what they are doing.

The hallmark of addiction is denial. Most addicts won't admit they 
need help until it's almost too late, if they ever do at all. If the 
UMass police are serious about trying to help stem the drug problem, 
and they are going to continue involving vulnerable kids who actually 
do have addictions, I hope they at least get the help and guidance 
from some substance-abuse professionals so that more lives may not be 
lost on their watch.

Wendy Worell

Gloucester
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