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DRUG PROBLEMS TAKE CENTER STAGE

County Authorities Discuss Programs With Substance Awareness Groups In Hanover

HANOVER TWP.  - Even as "Operation Painkiller," a drug sweep resulting in 56 arrests in late July on prescription painkiller medication, brought heightened awareness to the drug problem facing Morris County's young people, substance awareness groups and law enforcement officials concede the problem is not going to go away anytime soon.

Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Bob Weber met with about 80 people associated with substance awareness groups from around the county Monday at the Morris County Human Services building at 340 West Hanover Ave.  to discuss the many programs the county has to combat drug abuse.  He noted the drug sweep was a "real eye opener to law enforcement."

The meeting was sponsored by the Governor's Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, which funds the 30 substance awareness groups in the county.

Weber told the crowd it had been the assumption of law enforcement that pain killer abuse occurred when people using prescribed medication became addicted to it.

But as the "Operation Painkiller" investigation unfolded over a two-month period this spring it became apparent today's painkiller problem is an entirely different issue, now involving people who buy and sell the drugs like any other narcotic.

He said the prosecutor's office will have a number of tools at its disposal in the coming months to combat drug abuse, including broadening drug testing policies in school systems.

Hanover Park Superintendent of Schools John Adamus had earlier said current state law only allows random drug tests for athletes, although a new state law that just went into effect, will force any athlete who joins a sport that has a championship game to be tested.

The only other time students may be tested is if they appeared under the influence of an intoxicant, according to Adamus.

Gregg Benson, chairman of the Morris County Mental Health, Substance Abuse Advisory Board told the crowd painkillers like Oxcycontin are a narcotic and objected to the term "gateway drug" which has been used to describe it.  Benson said painkillers devastate the brain.  "We teach our kids to drink and do drugs," he said.  "We have a pain, we take something."

Morris County Superintendent of Schools Thomas Kane said he was shocked to see the kind of young people being arrested during the early morning sweep July 27.  Kane had been asked to come to the county's firefighters and police training facility in Parsippany that was used as a holding area for the sweep.

Kane noted many of the students, most of whom were graduates or students at Whippany Park High School, were "quality people" as he said police officers described them.  "We're talking about intelligent kids," he added.

Kane noted the drugs of choice changes with each new student generation, noting that pain killers are the top drugs now, but five years ago it was Ecstasy school administrators feared most.

The Hanover Township Substance Abuse Alliance has faced the most publicity since both the drug sweep and the apparent heroin overdose deaths of two Hanover women in late June and early July.  Some of that attention has been critical, such as when the alliance was attacked for doing nothing for years to stem the flow of drugs at a July Hanover Township Committee meeting.

On Monday the group came in for praise from Mount Olive Sgt.  Scott Van Ness.  "Hanover's publicity is a classic example of how parents' heads are in the sand until something falls in their laps."

He added substance awareness groups should promote themselves to make them more visible, calling them the "pulse of the community."

He noted Mount Olive would begin the school year with a police school resource officer stationed at district schools.

The Hanover Park School District has already put in place school resource officers for both Hanover Park High School, which serves students in East Hanover and Florham Park, and Whippany Park High School, which serves students in Hanover Township.

Hanover Township Substance Awareness Alliance member Majella LoBello said the emphasis should be placed more on parents than institutions, claiming there are still parents who will not take responsibility.

"The schools will drug test, but so should parents," she said.

Speaking to Van Ness, LoBello asked what parents need to be told to help their children avoid drugs.

Van Ness said words should never be sugar coated and the blunt truth is the best approach.  Van Ness, along with Kane, suggested community centers may be a place to start to offer alternatives for teens with nothing else to do.