HEROIN ABUSE PROMPTS AWARENESS, TREATMENT

LEXINGTON -- Nick Kanouse and Joshua Clark braved the rain to get the
message out last week.

Clark, 18, and Kanouse, 17, stood on the street in Lexington with a
sign reading "RIP Mike. Heroin killed my friend ... it could kill yours."

The two were friends of Michael Alan Arnold, 17, who died of a heroin
overdose and was found lying on a trampoline behind his parents' house
May 3, 2003.

"Seems like nobody did heroin until Mike died and now everyone's doing
it," said Clark, who says he was Arnold's best friend.

While not real close to Arnold, Kanouse had hung out with
him.

"I'm out here just to get the message across," he said. "If one person
goes by and this gets them to thinking about it, it's worth it."

Dr. James Richardson was director of Freedom Hall until it closed,
leaving the area without an in-patient drug- and alcohol-detox center.

He has begun a heroin detox program that uses buprenorphine, a newly
approved drug to fight the addiction with less potential for abuse and
overdose than the traditional methadone treatment.

"It's just been approved by the government for office-based treatment
of opiate addiction," Richardson said.

Currently, he treats five patients and expects the average treatment
program to last at least 18 months.

However, patients will have to find a way to pay the cost -- the
medication averages about $150 a month plus doctor's fees.

"When you look at the grand scheme of things, it's a lot less than
they would pay for heroin," Richardson said.

Richardson hopes to start another in-patient detox program and is
looking at grant proposals in 2005 as a possible means of funding.

He said Dr. Gary Frantz is the only other area physician offering the
detox program.

Frantz said he has been offering it for about a year and currently
treats 19 patients.

"I've had very few people not be able to afford it who have contacted
us," Frantz said. "Most people realize they can't go the abstinence
route; they need to treat it as a chronic illness."

Frantz said his patients are experiencing success in their
lives.

"All 19 people I've treated have done very well," he said. "They are
back working -- it's really been exciting."

"I'm out here just to get the message across. If one person goes by
and this gets them thinking about it, it's worth it."

Nick Kanouse,

high school student