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."