Pubdate: Thu, 30 Dec 2004
Source: Danvers Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2004 Community Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www2.townonline.com/danvers/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3608
Author: Frank Carini
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

STILL ATTACKING SMACK

DA Ramps Up Battle Against Heroin With Jan. 13 Symposium

You can still buy heroin in Essex County, but in their continuing
battle to curb rising heroin and opiate use on the North Shore, Essex
County officials will hold a conference next month to discuss the next
steps in smacking down this still-growing problem.

Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, Essex County Sheriff Frank
Cousins Jr. and the Anti-Crime Council will host a summit to target
the deadly epidemic of heroin and opiate abuse from 8 a.m. to noon on
Thursday, Jan. 13, at Merrimack College in North Andover.

The conference, entitled "The Heroin/Opiate Epidemic," is intended for
law enforcement, medical professionals, educators, civic leaders,
clergy, parents, pharmacists, business people, attorneys and community
leaders.

"The goal of this summit is to heighten awareness of what is truly a
horrendous problem throughout the Northeastern United States," says
Blodgett. "Law-enforcement efforts are vitally important, but it is
clear that education is the best way to combat this terrible
public-safety issue. It is through education that we will stem the
demand for these lethal drugs."

Cousins says everyone in the region should come together to defeat
this deadly scourge.

"Everyone can play a role in solving this epidemic," he says. "And
that's the way it should be and has to be. Too many young kids are
becoming involved with these substances and committing a variety of
crimes to finance their habits. Those crimes are felt by all of us. If
we collaboratively develop and execute solutions to this issue, the
problem will diminish."

Essex County became one of 13 New England counties designated as
High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas by the Office of National Drug
Control Policy (ONDCP) five years ago. Heroin treatment admissions as
well as hospital emergency department overdoses and deaths continue to
undergo an unprecedented rise in these counties.

Across New England, heroin is claiming more lives than homicide in
some metropolitan areas during the past six years. And according to a
report issued by the state Department of Public Health, there was a
230 percent increase from 1996 to 2001 in the number of 15- to
24-year-olds receiving hospital treatment because of heroin or
narcotic addiction.

In 2003 alone, the Essex County Drug Task Force made 300
heroin-related busts, and seized more than 21,000 single-dose bags of
heroin and 2,172 grams of pure heroin, enough for more than 65,000
additional single-dose bags. Heroin-related statistics for this year
will not be available until next month, according to Blodgett.

And the lethal strain of heroin being sold on the streets of Essex
County took at least two-dozen lives in 2003, notes Blodgett.

"Heroin is cheaper than a six-pack of beer, and despite law
enforcement's best efforts, easily obtainable," says Blodgett. "And
now that it can be snorted instead of injected with a needle, there is
a sense among users that it is more acceptable and will be neither
deadly nor addictive. They couldn't be more wrong."

The rate of heroin emergency room mentions per 100,000 of population
was 122 in 2001 for Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth and Suffolk
counties, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center. The
national rate was 37.

Blodgett has flogged the issue since his first day on the job two
years ago, and he refuses to give up on the fight. He says the only
way to raise the level of awareness and choke off the supply is
through education.

"The way I look at it, we just have to do more to get the word out,"
he says. "The only way we're going to beat this problem is prevention.
We have to teach people that only three things can happen: You fight
addiction for the rest of your life; you go to jail; or you die."

The keynote speaker for the Jan. 13 summit will be Clay Yeager,
director of community partnerships for Purdue Pharma, a pharmaceutical
company that produces Oxycontin. He is the former director of
Pennsylvania's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
and was the executive director of former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge's
Community Partnership for Safe Children.

In addition to Blodgett and Cousins, conference speakers will include
George Festa, director of High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area-New
England; Dr. Stephen Valle, president of ADCARE Criminal Justice
Services Inc.; Maureen Walsh, chairwoman of the Massachusetts Parole
Board; and officer Larry Wentzell, student resource officer for the
Lynn Police Department.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin