Pubdate: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2007 The Dallas Morning News Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 Author: Richard Abshire and Steve Thompson, The DM News Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) 'CHEESE' FLOWING INTO AREA SUBURBS Heroin Mixture A New Variation On An Old Problem, Officials Say It was like ordering takeout. Youngsters from 14 to 20 years old, from Rockwall and neighboring hamlets, hung out at a shopping center to hook up with friends who would make the run. Then they'd "order up," hand over their money, and the runners would be on their way. But they weren't going for pizza. These mostly middle-class suburban kids were going to South Dallas "trap houses" where they bought drugs - - cocaine, pills, and the cheap, cleverly marketed form of deadly heroin called "cheese." Authorities have found that dealers are packaging the drug in ways that appeal to kids - and often are mixing their product with whatever's available, meaning that users don't know the potency of what they're ingesting. Cheese is black tar heroin ground into powder and mixed with Tylenol PM or other antihistamines containing diphenhydramine. Drug dealers have found that the tan-colored, snortable concoction is more appealing to youngsters than more traditional forms of heroin. Since 2005, cheese heroin overdoses have claimed the lives of at least 24 people 18 or younger in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. "We have a problem with heroin, and we have a particular problem with drug pushers packaging it in such a way that it's appealing to young people," said Debbie Meripolski, executive director of the Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse In McKinney, police recently reported interviewing a teenager who admitted using cheese but didn't know he had actually ingested heroin. Not a new problem In Rockwall, police joined forces with the Dallas office of the Drug Enforcement Administration to investigate the South Dallas-Rockwall drug connection. They found that young user-dealers were driving into Dallas, walking into apartments full of dope, cash, guns and dangerous strangers to fill their orders, then hustling back across Lake Ray Hubbard to their waiting customers. Rockwall police Lt. Carl Alsabrook said the user-dealers were regular kids from area towns who attend Rockwall schools. They have no strong common thread, he said, and are from all economic levels. The ones making the runs into Dallas were dealing to their friends to cover the costs of their own drug use. Heroin users have always "cut" or diluted the drug with something, from baby laxative to Benadryl, which eases runny noses, nausea and other symptoms. Because of this, some experts say that to focus on the Tylenol PM component is to miss the point. Dr. William Rohr, Collin County's medical examiner, ruled that Scott Clark, 18, a student at McKinney Boyd High School, died this summer from the toxic effects of heroin, and noted the presence of diphenhydramine. But Dr. Rohr stressed that the young man died because of heroin, and that it was no different from the many heroin deaths he has investigated since the 1980s. "It's nothing new," Dr. Rohr said. "It's just a matter of what you call it." Several experts have questioned whether media coverage of the new wrinkle in heroin packaging does more harm than good. They worry that using the name "cheese" glamorizes the drug and might actually help popularize it. But Lt. Alsabrook sees the publicity as a public service. "The more information you can get out there to parents and kids, the better," he said. 'As far up as we could go' Lt. Alsabrook's department learned of the "order up" arrangement between Rockwall and Dallas in late 2006, but it wasn't until April that authorities were able to make supervised buys at the trap houses. Investigators who worked on the case said it's hard to figure how many doses, or "bumps," can be made from any given amount of cheese because there are so many variables in the process. The Dallas dealers charged about $80 a gram in their neighborhood, Rockwall police said. The "white-boy price" for user-dealers who came to Dallas to get the drug was $100. Rockwall police and DEA agents began their investigation with the "end users" - the suburban kids who "ordered up"- and worked back through the user-dealers who made the runs, to the Dallas trap house operators and finally to the Garland residence of a man they said was a heroin wholesaler. "That was as far up the chain as we could go," Lt. Alsabrook said. "The next link up from Garland is Mexico." The investigation led to three raids in June. A juvenile has already been sentenced to 15 years in the case. Three adults await trial on first-degree felony charges of possession with intent to distribute, punishable by five years to life in prison and a $10,000 fine. A big danger is that users are at the mercy of dealers who cut the product by mixing it with whatever's at hand. Most users have no way of knowing the potency or purity of the stuff they ingest. In the Rockwall-Dallas investigation, authorities found that the dealers didn't mix the heroin and Tylenol at first - the users did. Later, after some of the kids complained that they didn't know how, the Dallas dealers started mixing it for them and passing along the cost of the Tylenol. Like any other form of the drug, cheese heroin can be addictive and eventually will demand more cash than most kids - even middle-class suburbanites - can get their hands on legitimately. "We haven't seen any violence directly related to cheese heroin," Lt. Alsabrook said. "But we think a lot of property crimes, especially burglaries of motor vehicles, may be these kids stealing stuff they can pawn to buy drugs." DEA spokeswoman Terri Wyatt declined to comment on the investigation, saying there were still many leads to be followed beyond the situation in Rockwall. Lt. Alsabrook said there was no known connection between this investigation and Paige Elliott, a 16-year-old Rockwall High School student who died of an apparent drug overdose Sept. 17. Lt. Alsabrook said police "strongly suspect" that cheese heroin was involved, but they won't know for sure until they get the results of the toxicology tests done at Ms. Elliott's autopsy. Base moving out? Cheese heroin first showed up in Dallas schools in 2005, where DISD police Detective Jeremy Liebbe is credited with first noticing it. He found that mostly Hispanic teens at Marsh and Cary middle schools and W.T. White, North Dallas and Thomas Jefferson high schools were getting heroin imported from Mexico from adult dealers and mixing it with Tylenol PM. Students snorted it in school bathrooms and sometimes even in classes. DISD administrators acknowledged early this year that cheese use was a "major concern." Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has discussed it with North Texas law enforcement officials in meetings and introduced an amendment to a bill that added cheese to the drugs addressed by the National Youth Anti-Drug Campaign. A Dallas school district presentation describes the typical $2 "bump" as "tan-colored powder usually snorted through a tube, straw or the barrel of a ballpoint pen, packaged in a small paper bindle or clear plastic bag." Users hide the drug in small packets under the tongues of tennis shoes, in bras, inside markers and in the battery compartments of cellphones. McKinney Boyd High School also sent copies of a briefing to teachers so they would know what to look for. Among the warning signs: the words "cheese," "cheez," "chz," "queso" or "keso" in cellphone text messages. Detective Liebbe said that he believes the number of students caught with cheese heroin in Dallas schools is down this fall either because tips are typically slow early in the school year or because kids are getting better at hiding it. "We saw a really nice decline toward the end of last school year," he said. "The campuses that had problems got involved and combated the problem, but we're starting to see overdose deaths in Arlington, Irving, Rockwall and McKinney. The base seems to be moving out." 'It's heroin' Some local police and treatment professionals aren't buying it, saying that heroin use is not new to the suburbs. "We're still not recognizing cheese," said Plano Police Department spokesman Rick McDonald. "We don't even discuss cheese. We discuss heroin overdoses." Officer McDonald dismissed the label "cheese" as a marketing gimmick drug dealers use. "It's heroin, and sometimes by using different names of the drug, it less dignifies what it is," he said. "It's heroin." In the mid-1990s, a "chiva" heroin epidemic killed 20 young people over three years. Collin County has logged six heroin deaths this year, with victims' ages ranging from 17 to 58, said Sabina Stern, Collin County substance abuse coordinator. "The number of heroin deaths is slightly higher than usual, but not off-the-charts higher. "We're not seeing those young kids die," she said. "If I do hear the word 'cheese' and I ask them where they're seeing it or buying it, they all say 'Dallas County.' "Whether it's 'cheese' or 'heroin,' a lot of people are dying," Ms. Stern said. "And that's the nightmare." Staff writer Jason Trahan contributed to this report. - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath