A DRUG TEST THAT SOCIETY IS FAILING TO CONSIDER

Eric Roppenecker, dead at 18. Heroin laced with fentanyl. Holly
Gillis, 21, heroin, codeine and a prescription medication for
anxiety. Christopher Loeffler, 20, heroin. Heather Chiego, 20,
morphine. Patrick Walsh, 24, heroin.

This is since June. In Morris County alone. And only people under
25.

Not older adults or those in places like Newark or Elizabeth, where
such deaths no longer shock the community, only add to its sadness.

"We have a problem we want to address." These were the words of Joe
Adamus, the Hanover Park Regional superintendent as he introduced the
idea of random drug testing at his two high schools, Hanover Park and
Whippany Park, last week.

Three overdose deaths of recent Whippany graduates -- Roppenecker,
Gillis and Chiego -- and the arrest of 54 people, mostly students and
recent grads, for dealing and using the prescription painkiller oxycodone.

Adamus knows random drug testing won't end his district's drug
problem. He just hopes to put a dent in it, the way principal Lisa
Brady did at Hunterdon Central in the mid-1990s, when recent
graduates were dying, and drug and alcohol surveys at the school came
back with alarming results.

Adamus and Brady say the same thing when it comes to testing. It is
not going to keep all kids off drugs. But it gives them another
reason to say no.

"It's designed to help kids in situations where peer pressure becomes
greater than fear of their parents, or greater than all the anti-drug
education," said Brady, now superintendent at South Hunterdon. "Now
they have an excuse to reject drugs."

But that gets harder in a culture so reliant on drugs, and with so
much stuff laying around the medicine cabinet. Some help people live
normal, productive, healthier lives. Some are the snake oil of the
21st century.

We have a problem we should want to address.

We have an illegal drug problem because we have a legal drug
dependency. In our homes, in our schools, in our economy. It's $600
billion industry and nearly half is spent in the U.S.

Prescription drug advertising on TV is beginning to rival fast food,
and growing faster than automobile advertising. This doesn't include
the other magic pills, potions and lotions to cure what ails you, from
a runny nose to athlete's foot.

So we're sending yet another generation mixed messages, from the time
they see their first Children's Tylenol commercial on
Nickelodeon.

Just Say No.

Unless you have cold or flu symptoms, or allergies. Or one of the
thousands of other maladies and discomforts the human body was
designed to overcome or endure.

Drug-free school zones.

Except for Ritalin or Concerta, or other academic performance-enhancing
drugs. Or Paxil for depression, or Xanax for anxiety. All being
prescribed in epidemic proportions.

"There is a predisposition to using drugs in this country," said
Adamus. "We've become conditioned to use certain drugs."

The correlation between drug advertising and drug abuse, from a
chronological standpoint alone, is indisputable. Household remedies
began showing up in the 1960s, prescription drugs in the '80s.

"This is worth a greater discussion," Brady said. "We have become very
laissez faire about the use of all drugs."

An oversimplification? Of course. But to look too far beyond it may be
an overcomplication.

Because, as we all know, drug use knows no economic or social bounds.
City kids. Suburban kids. Kids in marching band, kids in punk bands.
Popular kids. Loners. Goths. Cheerleaders. Every time a kid dies, we
search for reasons. Too much money. Not enough money. Parental
pressure to excel. Not enough parental guidance. We ignore the common
denominator: a mass culture that pushes drugs to correct every little
ailment, injury or mood swing.

And so, if as a society, we are constantly telling kids legal drugs
can fix their all problems, how do we convince them that illegal drugs
won't?