Pubdate: Wed, 10 Mar 2004
Source:  New Age-Examiner (PA)
Copyright: The New Age Examiner 2004
Contact:  http://www.newage-examiner.com
Author: Nathan Milner
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

WYOMING COUNTY FACING HEROIN PROBLEM

Wyoming County faces an influx of heroin along with a rise in
drug-related crime and deaths, the Luzerne-Wyoming Counties Drug and
Alcohol Program administrator warned last Tuesday.

Mike Donahue said, "The reality is, it's coming and the kids are going
to die."

He spoke with County Commissioners, superintendents and principals of
Tunkhannock Area and Lackawanna Trail school districts, District
Attorney George Skumanick and a representative from Senator Charles
Lemmond's office to alert them to the imminent threat posed by heroin,
OxyContin and methamphetamines. "These trends are similar to what was
happening in Luzerne County in 1997 and we know what happens next,"
Donahue warned.

Around 1997, Donahue said, heroin appeared in Luzerne County with
purity levels between 85 and 90 percent. Historically, it was around
14 percent, meaning that users had to "cook" the heroin to remove
impurities and inject it. Higher purity levels now make the drug
"snortable," according to Donahue, and those experimental drug users
can get their first exposure to the drug through snorting or smoking.

Donahue reported that the average age of onset for heroin use has
dropped from 25-26 to 14-15 and he said that he has seen cases as
young as 12. Statistics put the average onset age for alcohol at 11.3
and marijuana at 11.75.

"If we're doing prevention in junior high, they've already made their
choice," Donahue said. "Once drug usage starts, prevention won't work."

Also contributing to the increase in heroin use is its cost. "Heroin
is becoming popular because it's cheap," said Skumanick.

"A bag is cheaper than a case of beer," Donahue said.

"A cheap case of beer," Skumanick added.

Skumanick said that sellers can purchase large quantities of the drug
from more metropolitan areas and double or triple their profit selling
it here.

Increased use, Donahue said, will lead to an increase in crime and
drug deaths, as well as present serious dependency problems.

"It brings with it unique social problems," Donahue said. "It is going
to cause increased crime," not necessarily violent in nature, but
small theft and robbery to fund a habit.

Donahue said overdoses will result as dealers switch potency. They
might circulate a batch of heroin at 80 percent "to get everyone
hooked;" then deliver a batch 50 percent to make more money from their
product. When they then distribute another batch of 80 percent, users
will overdose on the increased potency.

And heroin dependency, according to Donahue, is like no other drug.
"You can become dependent in a very short time," he said, even as
little as three months. "In New York City, the term they use for
heroin is 'here on.' 'From here on you're going to be sick.'"

For this reason, Donahue said, traditional outpatient care does not
work with heroin. The intensity of withdrawal symptoms will eventually
undermine any outpatient treatment.

He recommended to the superintendents an inpatient option which allows
students to form a support group of peers in their own
environment.

The schools already have a number of measures in place to prevent drug
use including the DARE program and the Student Assistance Program
(SAP), a program that identifies students having personal, family or
school problems and provides private counseling or referrals.

"I'm committed to a minimum of a drug-free school," said Mike Healey,
Lackawanna Trail High School principal. "I'm not sure we can win the
war on drugs but I do think we can win battles within our own
communities."

Healey said Trail incorporates drug education into the science
curriculum to provide students with the most current information and
said that students who turn themselves in can receive treatment
without fear of police action. Indeed, a few students have turned
themselves in.

The school is also exploring the feasibility of a school resource
officer, an on-campus police officer, Healey said. Measures such as a
school resource officer and Trail's use of random drug dog searches
Skumanick called "showing the flag" and considered very important in
the prevention of drug use.

Tunkhannock Area School District superintendent Steve Moyer said his
district is considering a school resource officer as well to
complement its DARE program and SAP teams.

Moyer has asked Donahue to speak before the Tunkhannock Area School
Board at its March 18 meeting to decide if additional funds need to be
allocated to the prevention of this new threat. He added, though, that
schools need parents' help. "Parents are our first line of defense,"
Moyer said. "It's not a school issue; it is a society issue. It has
got to be a broad-based, grassroots effort."

Have Questions?

A program on "What Parents Need to Know about Drug Abuse in Our
Community" will be offered at Father Nallin Hall behind Nativity BVM
Church, East Tioga Street, Tunkhannock, on March 30 at 7 p.m.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin