TOWN DARES TO FIGHT SUBSTANCE ABUSE

The newly revamped Orangetown Substance Abuse Committee will focus its
education, prevention and enforcement efforts on youth and their parents.

The 11-member steering committee, which was reorganized last month, is
composed of police officers, town residents and substance abuse prevention
specialists.

Councilman Denis Troy, who earlier this year called the committee "a joke"
because it met twice in two years, said he hoped the committee would now be
more effective in providing resources that would effectively curb underage
substance abuse.

"Sometimes people take it for granted and don't want to get involved or
they figure the police already know," said Troy, who will serve as the Town
Board's liaison to the committee. "The public is the eyes and the ears for
the force."

Last year, the town appointed two residents and one police officer from the
department's Juvenile Aid Bureau to the committee, but held off on
reappointing them in January.

The committee was formed in 1986 because, police officials said, there was
an increase in marijuana use in Orangetown schools. The group laid the
foundation for the town's school districts' involvement in the Drug Abuse
Resistance Education program.

The new committee would serve as an umbrella organization to some of the
smaller substance abuse programs in the town and school districts, like the
South Orangetown Coalition Awareness of Substance Abuse and Students
Against Destructive Decisions, said Detective Michael McPadden, a member of
the committee and a student resource officer at Tappan Zee High School.

With graduation festivities beginning soon, McPadden said the committee
will be working with the Rockland County Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children to conduct undercover sting operations in the coming
months to find out which retailers are selling alcohol and cigarettes to
underage children.

He said parents needed to take a more active role in their children's lives
and "need to be more street smart."

"We want to let parents know that they can be held liable if they host a
party with underage drinking," said McPadden, a detective with the police
department's Juvenile Aid Bureau. "We've come a long way. We want people to
know that we exist. It's important that people know who we are."

He added that by arresting a teenager the problem is not solved.

"There needs to be education," he said.

Parents who knowingly allow underage drinking at their home could be
charged with a first-degree misdemeanor and face up to one year in jail,
McPadden said.

In addition to holding workshops and speaking at schools, the committee is
setting up an anonymous underage drinking and substance abuse hotline. It
will meet once a month.

Judy Ebeling, Nanuet school's student assistant counselor, said the
committee will provide residents with information on what programs are
available in the town.

"We're really in the beginning stages," said Ebeling of Pearl River, who
served on the committee until 1991 and is a substance abuse prevention
specialist. "We're hammering stuff out. We want to find out what's going on
in the town and making people aware."

Town Supervisor Thom Kleiner said the committee would supplement the work
the Police Department, youth officers and the school district have already
done.

"It's a good thing," he said. "It will make sure they are communicating as
well as they can."

Anne Marie Mills, who has four children in Pearl River schools, said
underage substance abuse is a growing concern for parents all over the nation.

"There's a lot of alcohol and drug abuse out there," she said. "A lot of
times parents are not aware of what their kids are doing."