Pubdate: Mon, 17 Jan 2005
Source: Salem News (MA)
Copyright: 2005 Essex County Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.salemnews.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3466
Author: Karen  Andreas
Referenced:

Index -- Special on Opiate Use (Salem News) --

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n042/a05.html

OPIATES IN OUR TOWNS: ADDICTION SERIES TOUCHED MANY IN  THE COMMUNITY

My husband and I met an old friend for dinner recently. He apologized for 
arriving a little late, and for being a little tired. He had just returned 
from Cape Cod, he explained, where he had dropped off his 20-year-old son 
at a camp. A camp? An Outward Bound camp, he explained. His son, a recent 
graduate of Masconomet High School, wasn't doing so well. He had dropped 
out of college, couldn't keep  a job, didn't know what to do with his life.

It didn't sound like the Peter we knew. And I was worried. Moments later, 
after a little small talk, our friend broke down. "Peter's hooked on 
OxyContin," he blurted. "It's bad, really bad." I had heard the story 
before. Dozens of times before. I had been reading these stories daily, for 
weeks, as I edited our series about the OxyContin and heroin epidemic that 
has a grip on our youth on the North Shore. But this was different. This 
was my friend. This was his son. "OxyContin has stolen my son. It has 
stolen my son." He repeated the words over and over.

After two hours of talking, my friend hugged me as we left, telling me he 
couldn't wait to read the Salem News series on this drug scourge. "This 
will be one of the most important stories your newspaper ever publishes," 
he said. I believe that to be true.

For months a team of reporters, photographers and editors has been talking 
with young people, their parents, their teachers. We've had dozens of 
interviews  with the district attorney, the sheriff, doctors and 
clinicians. But we knew our series would ring hollow without the compelling 
stories of the people affected by the drugs.

People like 22-year-old Shawn Harnish of Salem, a Bishop Fenwick graduate 
who is now a heroin addict in jail. Peabody High graduate Andrew Moskevich, 
who credits his father with "saving his life" by turning him in to police 
for his OxyContin-driven crimes. Robert Bradley, the Marblehead attorney 
whose 18-year-old son died of a drug overdose. Herbert Levine, the school 
superintendent in Salem, whose son Joel is a recovering OxyContin addict. 
We thank each of them for their candor, for their courage, for their 
willingness to tell their stories to try to make a difference in someone 
else's life. Response to this series, published Jan. 6 and 7, has been 
encouraging. Some 1,200 people packed Salem High days after the series ran 
to hear Levine and his  son talk about their personal experience. The 
Danvers School Committee has taken  action, asking its superintendent to 
outline its drug education curriculum.  Readers are phoning and e-mailing, 
commending the newspaper for its commitment  to community journalism but 
reminding us that the stories must keep coming. And they will.

Our intent is to keep this story, this OxyContin and heroin epidemic, front 
and center in this newspaper for as long as it takes to affect change. And 
change will only come when we as a community - parents, educators, 
lawmakers, law enforcement and the medical community - all admit there is a 
problem and work together to fight it.

Limited copies are available of a special reprint of our series. Please 
contact me if you would like copies for your classroom, office, clinic or 
even your kitchen table.
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MAP posted-by: Beth