Pubdate: Sat, 18 Nov 2006 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2006 The Dallas Morning News Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 Author: Kim Horner, The Dallas Morning News Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) LOCAL KIDS FALLING VICTIM TO HEROIN MIX Rehab Programs Surprised To See 'Babies' Among Clients Local residential drug rehab centers have been overwhelmed with children addicted to a heroin and Tylenol PM mixture that some began using as young as age 11, officials said. Many of the youths say they bought the drug, commonly called "cheese," at school with their lunch money and snorted it through hollowed-out ballpoint pens. Officials said they are especially alarmed by the rising use of the heroin mixture among children younger than those who typically seek drug treatment. "To see 11-, 12- and 13-year-olds is something very new to us," said Michelle Hemm, program director at the Phoenix Academy of Dallas, a 32-bed, private residential treatment center for youths. "They're babies." Dallas has only three private youth residential treatment centers serving the region, with a total of 58 beds, and they are struggling to keep up with the demand. The Phoenix Academy has had to place several youths on a waiting list. "When a person wants treatment, that's the time to get them in treatment," said Michael Hathcoat, director of Phoenix Houses of Texas, which runs the Phoenix Academy. "If you wait, they have a chance to decide they can cut down on their own." But beating the drug on their own is unlikely, given the painful and severe symptoms of heroin withdrawal - vomiting, aches, sleeplessness and irritability. "With kids who want to be here, you tell them there's no bed, and they cry," Ms. Hemm said. The problem is concentrated at a few northwest Dallas schools, primarily among Hispanic youths, but cases have been reported throughout the Dallas area. Officials say the number of cases at treatment centers has grown since school officials and police raised concerns about cheese in April. In addition to more than 40 referrals to the Phoenix Academy in the last few months, Nexus Recovery Center Inc. in Dallas and Dallas County's juvenile services department also report an increased number of cheese addiction cases. Timberlawn Mental Health System, a Dallas psychiatric and substance abuse treatment facility, has admitted one to two youths per week for detoxification from cheese use, chief executive officer Craig Nuckles said. Deaths unknown It is unclear whether anyone has died from an overdose of the heroin mixture. The medical examiner does not have a way to track deaths specifically from heroin cut with Tylenol PM. The rising cheese use has brought in a different type of client than typically seen at the Phoenix Academy, officials said. The treatment center usually serves youths ages 15 to 17. But because cheese is being sold in middle schools along with high schools, the center faces less mature clients who get more homesick during weeks of residential treatment, Ms. Hemm said. Also unlike the more traditional client, kids who have come for cheese addiction were not required to attend treatment after getting into trouble with the law. Most have come voluntarily or were brought by parents, she said. Heroin may be the first drug they've ever tried. "For that to be your first shot out of the box, for a middle school student to be snorting heroin, that's scary," Mr. Hathcoat said. As a result, the kids have become addicted unusually fast. "These kids don't realize or understand that even though you call it cheese, and it's got a cutesy name, it's heroin - highly addictive heroin that's been around for centuries," said Detective Monty Moncibais, drug prevention and community relations officer for the Dallas Police Department's narcotics division. The large doses of Tylenol PM in the cheese mixture also can be harmful, even causing liver failure, said Dr. Sing-Yi Feng, a toxicologist on the medical staff at Children's Medical Center of Dallas. The hospital has seen a number of teens coming for help, including at least two admitted to intensive care, she said. $2 high Black tar heroin, a gooey substance, makes up to 8 percent of the cheese mixture. The heroin is mixed with crushed Tylenol PM to create a powder that can be snorted. It sells for as little as $2. A 17-year-old Dallas high school student who just completed treatment at the Phoenix Academy said she started using cheese as a sophomore in 2005. "I liked the feel of it," said the girl, who spoke on condition that her name not be used. "You feel relaxed and don't worry about nothing else." The girl said she and other students knew the drug contained heroin but believed they could control how much they used. She said she came for help after suffering chills and sleeplessness when she did not use the drug. "They just don't know what they're getting into," she said of kids who use cheese. "In my opinion, it's the worst drug ever." DISD officials say they are finding the drug at more campuses and in greater quantities than they did last school year. School police are working to catch dealers and students who are using it, Deputy Chief Gary Hodges said. The district uses drug-sniffing dogs to check schools, lockers and common areas on a random basis, Chief Hodges said. "We've gotten requests from every principal," he said. "They're a great deterrent." However, school police cannot employ many of the traditional police narcotics investigation tactics, DISD police Officer Jeremy Liebbe said. For example, they cannot use juveniles as confidential informants or expect an undercover police officer to pass as a middle school student, he said. School police also are trying to educate students, teachers and parents about cheese. "I get pretty detailed and very brutal in what heroin withdrawal is like," Officer Liebbe said. "A lot of them get very nervous from the description." Students addicted to cheese or any drug can go to their counselor or principal for help without fear of getting arrested, he said. Treatment experts fear that use will continue to spread and are concerned about the potential for fatal overdoses, like those seen from heroin use in Plano in the mid-1990s. Officials worry that once kids leave treatment, they go back to the same school environment where they started using the drug. Families with children using cheese can't always afford to move, Ms. Hemm said. The 17-year-old student who recently completed residential treatment at the Phoenix Academy said she knows cheese will be around when she goes back to school. But she said treatment has taught her ways to deal with problems besides using drugs. The student said she plans to form a support group at school for her and other teens recovering from cheese addiction. "If [other students] are going to do drugs, I need to step away and live my life," she said. "It's not going to be easy." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek