AMID HONEST ADMISSIONS, DENIALS, DRUG-RELATED DEATHS KEEP ON RISING

Thomas Eugene Bennington, a young man from Chatham Township, died at
home last Sunday. That is what his obituary said. It went on to say
he had a sense of humor. He was loved. His parents included another
message in the obituary, something they wanted other parents to read.

It said their 23-year-old son died "of drug-related causes."

Bennington family members said they weren't ready to talk publicly
this past week. They were waiting for tests to reveal the exact cause
of death as they prepared for a funeral Saturday. They were trying to
do some good with the obituary they placed in newspapers. People from
their church were talking about it, their pastor said, and maybe that
would get some parents talking to their children about drugs.

"They are very honest people," the Rev. Edward Halldorson, pastor of
the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township, said of the Benningtons.
"They have been very open about Thomas's struggles. I think they're
opening up the door for other families who have been struggling but
haven't been able to confront it.

It can inspire other families to name the demon. Very few people do that."

Record Drug Deaths

Thomas Bennington's death came days before a drug summit held this
past Wednesday at Daytop in Mendham, a drug rehabilitation center for
young people. The summit was called by law enforcement officials
during a year when there has been a record number of drug deaths in
Morris County. Teenagers talked during the summit about their
addictions. One girl named Christina talked about graduating from
painkillers to heroin. The Rev. Joe Hennen, president of Daytop,
asked when her parents realized she needed help.

Christina remembered the day, telling a story about parental denial.

"When I overdosed on heroin when I was 15, on May 23, 2005,"
Christina said. "For any parent, when you're in a hospital bed, when
you're getting your stomach pumped and you have to have other people
remind you to breathe, telling you have to breathe ... you can't
really deny it ... unless you're really in denial. ... That's when
they actually said we have to do something about this."

Holly's Death

Here is another story about denial told by Joan Gillis, whose
21-year-old daughter Holly died over the summer. The Gillis family
has been outspoken about the drug problem in the Hanover Township
area. Then when police arrested dozens of kids this summer on charges
of dealing and possessing pain killers, a sweep dubbed Operation
Painkiller, one of Holly's friends spoke about the drug problem on
TV. The friend offered to talk at local schools. Someone writing
anonymously on a local Web site said she would not be welcome,
according to Joan Gillis.

Maybe some people have it in their heads that kids who have done
drugs are just bad kids. They may be thinking now that dozens of kids
have been arrested, the problem simply will fade away.

"They feel if they speak out, they will be attacked," Joan Gillis
said about some of the kids. "A lot of people want to put their heads
in the sand."

Law enforcement officials have been saying the problem has been
getting worse, that more and more kids are abusing pain killers. They
say a record 30 fatal drug overdoses -- 26 confirmed and four pending
toxicology reports -- in Morris County so far this year are symptoms
of a widespread acceptance of drug use among young people. Many kids
arrested during Operation Painkiller were recent graduates of the
Hanover Park Regional High School district but police have been
saying the problem is everywhere. They have been saying parents who
don't think so are in denial.

They have been asking for help from school officials.

East Hanover Police Chief Stanley Hansen said this past summer that
he wanted more police presence in the Hanover Park district's two
high schools. He said he had been hoping to be invited into the
schools. John Adamus, the schools superintendent, was then asked by a
reporter about allowing police resource officers into the schools.
The superintendent responded that there was no need to make a change,
that the system in place was "working quite well."

Shielding Investigators

He knew police were investigating widespread pain killer use among
his students. He sat on a panel of education experts at this week's
summit and said he didn't want to tip the hand of police by saying too much.

"We started working with police 18 months before the newspaper
stories came out," Adamus told the audience. "It was difficult taking
a passive role. And believe me, we did take a lot of criticism."

He was saying he had been protecting a police investigation, keeping a secret.

That doesn't really explain his quote about things "working quite
well." It doesn't explain why Hansen heard nothing back after making
informal overtures about more police involvement with students and
drug education.

On the day dozens of his former students were being arrested, Adamus
told a reporter that police resource officers would be stationed in
the high school. He could have announced that change in policy long
before the arrests, if it is what he really wanted to do, without
giving away any secrets.

Widespread Problem

Law enforcement officials issued a list of names this past week -- 26
people confirmed dead of drug overdoses in 2006. The average age was
35.4, so most were a long time out of high school. It is not clear
why so many people have been dying. Experts in drug abuse say it's a
cumulative effect, that some of the people now dying started using
drugs years ago. Six of the confirmed dead were 25 years old or
younger -- including a teenager from East Hanover, a 20-year-old from
Chester Township, and two girls in their early 20s from Hanover.

Law enforcement officials were saying young people died just this
past week. They were saying one set of parents planned to attend the
summit at Daytop this past week but couldn't go because they spent
the day planning their daughter's funeral. In Chatham Township,
another set of parents wrote their son's obituary.

"Despite a long battle with drug and alcohol addiction, Thom never
lost his sense of humor or his love for or his loyalty to his
family," said the obituary for Thomas Eugene Bennington.

In so many words, a grieving family reached out to other parents.
They want people to talk, to remember their dead son. They want
parents to know what drugs have done to their lives, and to so many
other lives, a list of dead that keeps growing this year longer than
ever before.