Pubdate: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 Source: Boston Globe (MA) Copyright: 2014 Globe Newspaper Company Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340 Website: http://bostonglobe.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52 Author: Wendy Worell WITH NO CLUE ABOUT ILLS OF ADDICTION, POLICE SHOULD NOT TOY WITH STUDENTS UMass Amherst will review a campus police program that uses students as confidential drug informants, following a report on an informant's fatal heroin overdose. I was so incensed after reading the front-page story Sunday about the UMass Amherst police using students caught with drugs as so-called informers ("Hooked. Terrified. Trapped," Page A1, Sept. 28). This particular young man died. My heart breaks for his young life and for his family. This should not have happened, and I hope his family pursues this case on behalf of their son. I have worked with those who are addicted to heroin for years. It is the scourge of our young, and it is killing them in record numbers. Clearly the campus police need some major awareness training about addiction in general, and the depths-of-hell grips of heroin in particular. If, as chief deputy Patrick Archbald said, they "believed what he was telling them" when this poor kid said he did not have a drug problem and did not want help, then they have no real understanding of addiction and have no business doing what they are doing. The hallmark of addiction is denial. Most addicts won't admit they need help until it's almost too late, if they ever do at all. If the UMass police are serious about trying to help stem the drug problem, and they are going to continue involving vulnerable kids who actually do have addictions, I hope they at least get the help and guidance from some substance-abuse professionals so that more lives may not be lost on their watch. Wendy Worell Gloucester - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom