HAVERHILL -- Some high school students who took a survey that shows an increase in drug use by teenagers don't believe it is accurate. They say the annual survey is not taken seriously by their peers, who often fail to answer questions accurately. But officials in charge of the study say the results are reliable and consistent with the previous year's findings. The School Committee formed a task force last month to consider random or suspicion-based drug testing at the high school. [continues 700 words]
HAVERHILL -- More city teens are saying they have used hard drugs -- cocaine, heroin, LSD or ecstasy -- at least once in the last month, according to a survey of high-schoolers released yesterday. But Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said the way to fight the teen drug problem is not to subject students to random drug testing as has been proposed by School Committeeman Scott Wood. Blodgett said education is the key. "I don't see drug testing as being the solution," Blodgett said. Wood proposed random or suspicion-based drug testing of students, in part because of the results of last year's survey showing increase in drug use. A task force made up of educators, officials and parents is now discussing ways to combat drug use including drug testing. [continues 917 words]
Task force not sold on drug tests HAVERHILL -- The majority of members of a task force studying ways to fight drug use at the high school have yet to be sold on testing students, but the chairman of the group believes some kind of drug testing will eventually be recommended. Three of 12 members at the group's second meeting last night said they are strongly opposed to any kind of testing and want the panel to instead pursue only education and counseling programs to combat what all the members agreed is a growing drug problem at the high school. [continues 635 words]
HAVERHILL -- Mayor James J. Fiorentini said he may support testing of students suspected of drug use, as the city looks for ways to deal with the problem at Haverhill High School. If a task force studying ways to curb drug use recommends the tests, the mayor said he will consider backing that recommendation. He is the chairman of the School Committee, which has to approve the testing for it to happen. When the committee created the drug task force last month, Fiorentini said he has not seen any proof that student drug use was on the rise at the high school. He attended a drug forum last week in Lawrence, where Haverhill Detective Sgt. John Arahovites said the city is having "a serious problem" with heroin use and addiction among adults and younger people. Yesterday, the mayor said Arahovites' comments, along with similar ones made by law enforcement officials across the Merrimack Valley, were "troublesome and disconcerting." "It's clear drug use by teens and by adults is a serious problem that we can't afford to ignore," the mayor said yesterday. "I am 100 percent behind the task force. I'm looking forward to seeing their recommendations and hearing what they have to say." [continues 530 words]
Local heroin use called 'frightening' Some of the cheapest and most debilitating heroin in the nation is flowing through Andover and other upscale suburban communities as well as urban Lawrence, causing a frightening change in drug use locally, police officials report. Today's drug addicts no longer fit the stereotype of down-and-outers, people living on the ugly side of life, said Andover police Chief Brian Pattullo. The problem, he added, has spread to some of the best homes and families in the region. "The biggest worry is heroin and the addiction," Pattullo told a drug-prevention forum in Law rence yesterday. "We have professionals (in business and other fields) that we've arrested that you wouldn't even know used drugs." The six-hour forum, broadcast live by WCCM Radio in Methuen, featured police chiefs, school officials, neighborhood activists, outreach workers and politicians from across the Merrimack Valley. All described the toll drug addiction is taking on the local scene. [continues 597 words]
HAVERHILL - Schoo Committeman Scott W. Wood Jr. firmly believes drug testing is the best way to fight drug use by students. At first, he favored random testing of kids involved in after-school sports. But now, Wood says testing students who teachers or administrators have reason to believe are using drugs may be a better way to go. He also said allowing parents opposed to drug testing to exclude their children might be a good compromise for those opposed to the idea. [continues 287 words]
As an alcoholic that has been sober for 30 years, I believe I know something about addiction. It is plain to see those pushing for random drug testing in schools know nothing about the problem of addiction, know nothing about why some students use alcohol and drugs and get hooked while others do not. There are those among us that from the first day of school feel we don't belong, that we are not a part of. Many mothers have heard their young children come home from school and say: "Nobody likes me." that child is a candidate for alcohol or drug use as he or she grows older. [continues 102 words]
HAVERHILL -- Saying there is a growing drug problem at Haverhill High, School Committeeman Scott W. Wood Jr. wants the city to consider random drug testing of students and athletes. "There is a drug problem in Haverhill and as elected officials we should not bury our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn't exist," said Woods, a 2002 Haverhill High School graduate "There needs to be consequences and a mechanism to deal with drug use by students. In my opinion, it takes education combined with punishment to keep kids off drugs." [continues 554 words]
HAVERHILL -- Two School Committee members say they will fight random drug testing of Haverhill High students if it is recommended by a task force studying drug use at the school. Committee members Kerry Fitzgerald and Glen Lewandowski said they are against the testing proposed by Committeeman Scott Wood Jr. When discussing the proposal last night, the committee unanimously created the task force to study the drug problem at the high school, but stopped short of favoring random testing. "I don't support random testing," Fitzgerald said. "I would only consider (drug testing) for a student who started acting unusual or if there was a noticeable problem." [continues 552 words]
HAVERHILL -- A controversial proposal to randomly test Haverhill High School students and athletes for drugs is drawing both ire and support from those most likely to be tested. "It's degrading that they would want to do that. They are treating us like we are all rowdy teenagers doing bad things," said student council president and swim team captain Christine Fitzpatrick, 18. "There are some jobs and some places where drug testing is required, but public school shouldn't be one of them. The students need to be shown more respect -- not less." [continues 657 words]
To the Editor: Regarding your recent series on opiate addiction: As grieving parents of a son who died at age 19 in 1993 after ingesting some street heroin, may we offer our comments? When America prohibited alcohol, thousands were poisoned by adulterated black market booze. When alcohol was legalized again, those incidents were drastically reduced. Today, our children are dying because of adulterated black market drugs. The carnage will end only when we come to our senses and allow users once again to purchase clean, cheap, quality-tested drugs at the corner store just as tobacco users do now. Let's finish the job we started when we ended alcohol prohibition, follow the principles enshrined in the Bill of Rights and legalize all drugs. Eleanor and Alan Randell, Victoria, B.C., Canada [end]
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n042/a06.html Sad really, that it's come to this, but Purdue Pharma, the Connecticut firm that manufactures OxyContin, is spending $200 million in an attempt to develop a "smart pill" that would prevent its pain medication from being used illegally. The illegal use of the powerful prescription painkiller has become a public relations and legal nightmare for the firm, which, according to their representatives, is throwing all available resources at thwarting potential abusers. [continues 193 words]
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n042/a06.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone) BOSTON -- When children died after misusing their product and a prominent talk show host entered treatment because of his addiction to it and other painkillers, the manufacturers of OxyContin fell back on an age-old strategy: The best defense is a good offense. Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma has been doing an extensive advertising campaign, funding drug-awareness programs and sending people to speak at public events, all reinforcing the message that the product is generally safe and effective if used properly. [continues 873 words]
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n042/a06.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) NORTH ANDOVER -- Kathleen Lawrence was smart, came from a two-parent, middle-class family, had a passion for running to stay fit and was so health conscious that she refused to eat meat. To all outward appearances, she had the perfect life. But the attractive blonde also became a drug addict while in high school, and the demon ended up taking her life at age 21, turning her into yet another tragic story that knows no social or economic boundaries. "She came from a good family," said her father, Timothy Lawrence. "She had a lot of opportunities. She fought it as if it was a disease -- like she had cancer. And the disease just beat her." [continues 1020 words]
NORTH ANDOVER -- More than 500 people packed a gymnasium at Merrimack College yesterday, trying to make sense of the area's OxyContin and heroin epidemic. The turn-out was so overwhelming that some people had to be turned away at the door. "It really shows that people realize the problem we have," said Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, "and it really shows a community response to the problem." The event, the first of its kind to address the widespread abuse of OxyContin and heroin among young people, was organized by Blodgett and Sheriff Frank Cousins. Both men said they were pleased the room was filled with people from many backgrounds -- parents, teachers, mayors, probation officers and doctors -- not just police. [continues 639 words]
On Oct. 22 of last year, Officer Lori Cameron had the hideous assignment of coming to our house and notifying us that our son, our darling Robert, was dead. In Malden. Drug overdose was the suspected cause of death. Three months later the medical examiner's office reported to us that the autopsy revealed high levels of morphine in his system. Morphine? Isn't that what they give to cancer patients in the end stages of their terrible and painful disease? Morphine? Who willingly takes morphine? [continues 981 words]
Lawrence House of Corrections. How did I get here? As I sit here trying to think of things to say, it's hard because heroin taught me not to feel anything. It would have been easier to deal with this if I were high. Now that I am straight, it's hard to deal with my emotions because I've not dealt with them for so long. It's funny how you can fall in love with a drug that gives you so much misery! [continues 497 words]
When I graduated from St. John's Prep in 1992, I had lots of friends and none of them was using OxyContin or heroin. OxyContin didn't even exist then. And heroin was something homeless junkies did on Avenue B in New York City, not in Essex County high school parking lots. But by early last year, I noticed a lot more young faces on the obituary pages from my hometown of Peabody. These kids, in their teens and early 20s, weren't dying in cars, boats or of rare forms of cancer. They were dying of drug overdoses. I knew one victim. Her name was Stacey. She was 20 years old and a friend of my younger brother. Her nickname was "The Dude," which was a reference to the cool, care-free protagonist in the 1998 film "The Big Lebowski." I did not know Stacey well. All I knew is she was a talented painter, dressed like a hippie and had a kind soul. She once brought my mother some fresh flowers for no apparent reason. [continues 885 words]
A fight we must not lose Essex County is confronting an epidemic that makes no distinction between so-called good kids and troubled, between rich and poor, or young and old. Heroin in the Northeast is highly addictive, unforgiving, and lethal. Law enforcement throughout Essex County recognizes that this poison is increasingly finding its way to young people, destroying and claiming their lives. Across Essex County, in cities and suburbs alike, dozens of people fell victim to opiates in 2004. Sadly, some of the victims made the decision to use heroin for the first time, and that decision cost them their lives. It's a fact that if not for the drug Narcan, which counteracts the effects of opiates, the number of overdose deaths would have been even more staggering. [continues 331 words]
The problem of opiate addiction, the subject of a two-part series that appeared in the Eagle-Tribune newspapers last week, demands our attention and action. The new scourge of cheap heroin has police, educators and social workers shaking their heads. And it has those parents who aren't crying over the loss of a child wondering whether their son or daughter could be next. The problem of opiate addiction, the subject of a two-part series that appeared in the Eagle-Tribune newspapers last week, demands our attention and action. It won't just go away. Indeed, Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett and others in law enforcement say the low prices at which heroin is sold on the street today is simply part of the dealers' business plan. Once enough people are hooked, the cost will go up -- bringing a new spiral of crime and hurt. What's required now is a multi-pronged assault not only on the drug-sellers, but on a culture that has come to expect a solution for every problem in a bottle of pills and the kind of pressures that prompt young people to seek escape in mind-altering substances. As last week's stories made all too clear, this problem is not confined to any one community or any single demographic. And the crime it spawns as addicts seek the cash with which to feed their habit, can touch anyone at any time in any place. "I'm scared," Blodgett declared. [continues 512 words]
