Pubdate: Wed, 12 Jan 2005
Source: Salem News (MA)
Copyright: 2005 Essex County Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.salemnews.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3466
Author: Alan  Burke

PEABODY LIBRARY CONTEST AIMS TO WARN KIDS  OF DRUG DANGEr

PEABODY - The Peabody Institute Library has launched a competition among 
the city's teenagers to produce a poster warning of the dangers of 
OxyContin and heroin abuse. A cash prize will go to the winners.

It's just a first step, organizers say, in response to recent revelations 
about addiction in Peabody and across the North Shore, revelations 
highlighted in a Salem News series last week.

"It kind of sent a shudder through everyone," says young-adult librarian 
Melissa Rauseo.

Her own children have been reading the stories, adds library director 
Martha Holden, which include accounts of young people from every social 
background drifting into an addiction that warps their lives, shatters 
their families and,  in some cases, kills the users.

"We're trying to do something," says Holden. "If we can make kids pay 
attention to the dangers, it would be good."

The rules for the posters are loose, but each must feature educational and 
accurate information on the perils of OxyContin and heroin. They should 
also be visually appealing. Young people from ages 11 to 18 are eligible to 
participate  and the library staff is hoping that Peabody teachers assign 
the posters as part  of their classwork.

Entry forms are available at the young adult room in the main library, 
downtown Peabody. Those interested must enter before Thursday, Feb. 10. 
Rauseo, 21, was herself a student at Bishop Fenwick not so long ago. "I 
knew which kids were taking drugs," she says.

But it's a measure of how difficult it is to deal with the problem that 
even students like Rauseo had only a vague idea about the details, like 
what kind of  drugs her peers were using.

The young people she sees now at the library have complained about the 
Salem News story.

"I had a few kids say they didn't like to see Peabody in the news in such a 
negative way." On the other hand, she says, none denied the truth of the 
stories. But both Rauseo and Holden agree that it's important to confront 
the problem, bringing it out into the open. The contest, meanwhile, 
requires research on the  topic, forcing the kids to learn about the 
dangers created when young people  sample OxyContin, a prescription drug 
that mimics the effects of heroin and, taken improperly, is highly addictive.

It's also expensive, which leads many addicts to turn to its cheaper twin, 
heroin, now used without needles, in powder form.

A ceremony is planned to award prizes for the best posters, though the 
judging date and the prize amount are yet to be determined. Both Mayor 
Michael Bonfanti and District Attorney Jon Blodgett have agreed to attend. 
The Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring the contest.

Eventually, says Holden, she wants to see arrays of posters in all three of 
the city's libraries, reminders of a deadly danger facing the city's 
children. "We're hoping we can open their eyes early."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth