DISD SEES 'CHEESE' ESCALATE AS PROBLEM AMONG STUDENTS

Arrests In District Spike; More Kids Seek Help For Addiction To Heroin
Mix

The number of Dallas students getting hooked on a new drug called "cheese"
is skyrocketing, with arrests for the heroin mix up 82 percent so far this
school year.

Dallas Independent School District police made 122 arrests through
February for students either possessing or dealing the drug. At that
time last school year, 67 cheese-related arrests had been made. The
total had reached 90 by summer. DISD officials have said they were
slow to see cheese as a threat when it was first detected in the fall
of 2005 because they didn't know what it was. They say the number of
arrests has picked up because now they know what they're looking for.

Cheese, which sells for as little as $2 a hit, is a highly addictive
blend of black tar heroin and crushed Tylenol PM, or any similar cold
medicine containing a sleep aid. It has spread fastest in a cluster of
middle and high schools in northwest Dallas.

Rehab centers also are reporting a surge in requests for treatment
from students, some as young as 9, who are hooked on the drug. Don
Smith, a research manager in the Dallas County Juvenile Department,
has noticed the increase in felony drug cases turned in by DISD
police. Also Online Mexican alliance drives drug flow Parents' guide
to 'cheese': Information, stories and video "We still do get the
cocaine cases and the methamphetamines, but what's fueled this
increase has been the 'cheese' epidemic," Dr. Smith said. "This one is
very disconcerting because they're targeting such a young population."
DISD fears the drug's popularity will expand.

"While arrests for possession at this time have been concentrated in
the northwest Dallas corridor ... it is perceived that its usage will
spread rapidly across the district and surrounding districts," the
district's chief administrative officer wrote to Superintendent
Michael Hinojosa in a Feb. 22 memo that was forwarded to the school
board.

Addictive mix Students are vulnerable to the heroin mix because it's
so addictive and they can't tolerate the physical symptoms of
withdrawal. The average user is 14, male and Hispanic, according to
DISD. Kids typically snort the drug and hits generally are 2 percent
to 7 percent heroin, the district says. This school year, DISD police
found 15 hits of cheese on a Marsh Middle School girl. Last school
year's biggest bust involving one person was about eight hits, said
Deputy Chief Gary Hodges of the DISD police. The youngest dealer was
11, he said.

Officials blame cheese for the deaths of at least four teens in Dallas
County since spring 2006. Officials are awaiting toxicology reports to
determine whether it also killed a 15-year-old Molina High School
student in late March.

Dallas seems hardest hit by the drug among Texas cities, local law
enforcement officials said. Administrators in other large Texas school
districts, including Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio, said
the drug has not surfaced there.

James Capra, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement
Administration's Dallas office, said agencies around the world have
been asked whether they're seeing the drug.

"This is the only place this is occurring," Mr. Capra said. Cheese has
been identified in more than a dozen DISD schools and some in
surrounding suburbs. DISD police say cheese has turned up in Irving,
Farmers Branch, Mesquite and Garland, although no definitive number of
arrests or seizures were available.

What's specific to this area is the mixing of black tar heroin -
imported almost exclusively from Mexico with some coming from Colombia
- - with Tylenol PM or some other similar cold medicine, such as Advil
PM or any pill with diphenhydramine, sold under the trade name
Benadryl. "You don't cut heroin typically with Tylenol PM," Mr. Capra
said. The drug mix got its name because it looks like powdered
Parmesan cheese. The amount of heroin used in the mix varies by
dealer, making it even more dangerous. "If you're used to taking it
cut with 3 percent heroin, and you get 8 percent, you're in the
morgue," Mr. Capra said.

Police have not identified the origin of cheese but suspect it was a
marketing ploy concocted by a street-level dealer who was trying to
broaden his customer base. They believe there are up to 20 "mixers,"
or students who buy heroin from adult dealers and mix it with crushed
over-the-counter pills that merchants tell police are being stolen
from stores. "Dope dealers understand that once they get their hooks
into a kid, they've got a customer for life," Mr. Capra said. "And
they don't care how short that life is."

Spreading the problem In Dallas, the school district may have
inadvertently exacerbated the problem when it first began seeing
cheese cases.

"They sent the kids to alternative school, which tended to spread the
problem through kids sharing information," said Dallas police Deputy
Chief Julian Bernal, commander of the narcotics division.

Chief Hodges said it's possible that alternative school placements
factored into the drug's spread. But he said if that were the case,
the drug probably would be showing up in more schools because
alternative schools draw students from across the district.

The district's Village Fair alternative school has had an increase in
arrests for the drug, 13 so far this school year, up from one the
previous year. Arrests at Rusk Middle School also increased to 13 from
one last school year.

Children addicted to the drug have a range of dependency, said Collin
Goto, a toxicology expert and associate professor of pediatrics at UT
Southwestern Medical Center.

"Some are using once or twice a day, and some up to 10 to 15 times a
day," Dr. Goto said.

Students have come up with creative ways to sneak the drugs into
schools. They carry it inside pens, waistbands, pockets, belt buckles,
cellphone battery compartments and notebooks, DISD officials say. In a
recent attempt to foil investigators, dealers dyed their product green
for St. Patrick's Day, Chief Bernal said. There also are reports of
the drug being loaded into Pixy Stix, a powdered candy sold in straws,
he said. The popularity of cheese has some Dallas rehabilitation
centers scrambling for funding to house students.

Phoenix Academy of Dallas, a 32-bed private, residential treatment
center, is seeing a big increase in kids dependent on heroin, director
Michelle Hemm said. In the last six months, she received 104 phone
calls from people seeking treatment for heroin - more than she
received in the last two years. Ms. Hemm said some kids who have never
smoked a cigarette are trying cheese and becoming addicted.

"This has hit Dallas really hard," she said. "It's crazy." Before
checking into a rehab center, kids with severe drug addiction often go
through detox. Timberlawn Mental Health System in Dallas is a major
provider of the service.

Craig Nuckles, CEO of Timberlawn, said his substance abuse admissions
for youths held steady at about 500 from 2005 to 2006. But he said
2007 already looks much busier.

"We are certainly very actively involved in treating kids who have
been found to be using cheese," he said.

Mr. Nuckles said detox takes an average of five to seven days for
children. After that, they typically move on to a rehab center. The
youngest child treated for cheese was 9 or 10, he said, an age he
calls "dreadfully young to be treating a drug addict."

'Nothing to play with' Children often can't stop at one or two hits.
Withdrawal symptoms are severe after just a couple of hits, according
to DISD, and the discomfort causes the user to seek more. The symptoms
include abdominal pain, nausea, mood swings and headaches.

"You're not using many times just to get high, but you're using to
keep from hurting, physically hurting," said Phillip Dillard, program
director of Holmes Street, a Dallas rehab center. "This drug is
nothing to play with." The Dallas school district says it's trying to
combat the fast spread of the drug. But some in the community have
criticized the district for not acting before the drug caused a crisis.

DISD has been getting the word out to parents and students through a
series of community meetings. School employees are receiving training
on detection and prevention, and dogs are being used to search for the
drug. Campuses identified as having the biggest problem with the drug
- - Cary and Marsh middle schools and North Dallas, Thomas Jefferson and
W.T. White high schools - were assigned licensed chemical-dependency
counselors. And the district has ordered a $50,000 drug-testing
machine so it won't have to wait for results from a regional lab.

A DISD police hotline gets about 20 to 30 calls a week but has yet to
directly result in any arrests, Chief Hodges said. "Some are reporting
sellers or buyers, but most are asking for help," he said. The hotline
number is 214-932-5695.

At North Dallas High, the school's marquee last week reminded
passers-by of a parent academy to discuss cheese. Cheese arrests at
the school have increased dramatically to 26 this school year, up from
three last school year. Denise Rodriguez, a 15-year-old student at
North Dallas, said the school constantly reminds kids of the dangers
of cheese. She said she's been asked to try the drug but has refused
because of what it's doing to her friends. "I see my friends, they
depend on it," she said. "I think it's a problem." A DANGEROUS,
ALLURING DRUG The attractions of cheese: . It's inexpensive. Each hit,
about a 10th of a gram, costs about $2. . It's addictive. Withdrawal
symptoms are so severe, even after the first or second use, that users
seek another hit to escape the pain. . It's easy to make. Reports show
that teens are the mixers and users of the drug and sell to their
peers to support their own habits. Generally, the mixture is 2 percent
to 7 percent heroin, with Tylenol PM or a similar over-the-counter
drug making up the remainder.

It's easy to package, transport and hide. Students bring it to
school inside pens, belt buckles and the battery compartments of
cellphones. . All students are vulnerable to its addiction. The
average user is 14 years old; 80 percent are male, and 98 percent are
Hispanic. The dangers of cheese: . Life-threatening consequences
include liver failure and respiratory failure. Five teens are believed
to have died from overdoses of the drug. . Withdrawal symptoms, which
often mimic flu symptoms, include drowsiness, headaches, mood swings,
abdominal pain and nausea.