TOUGH PILL

If children are under the influence of heroin and Oxycontin and
parents ignore the possibility, does a drug problem really exist in
Marshfield?

Police, parents and community members upset about the lack of
attendance by parents at a drug awareness parent night at Furnace
Brook Middle School Thursday night say the answer is yes.

Lt. Phil Tavares summed up the sentiment expressed by many at the
forum about the lack of attendance - about two dozen people. For every
middle school or high school student, there are usually two parents,
he said, so where were the 5,000 parents who did not attend to learn
about the "it" drugs - heroin and Oxycontin - in the Marshfield schools?

"Where are they?" he asked. "That's the biggest problem. You have to
know what's going on with your kids. You have to be nosy."

Tavares said once an addiction takes over a child's life, it's awfully
hard to get the child back, so prevention in the classroom and at home
is key.

"We have a serious, serious drug problem in our community, and you
can't hide from it," he said.

The people who did not attend missed the story of Jim Kent, a friend
of Tavares' for 16 years, who talked about his drug addiction in high
school to show that it can happen to anyone. Kent said he grew up in a
good family, but he started smoking marijuana at 12 and was into
cocaine and hallucinogens by age 15. All his high school friends were
taking drugs, too, looking for that high. All he wanted to do was get
high.

"I didn't know if I was coming or going," he said.

Kent wasn't driving when he lost his eyesight in a motor vehicle
accident, but he was high. His life on drugs was not what his parents
had wanted for him, and he felt like he had screwed them over. He
worries about the youths today.

"There's a lot of bad stuff in Marshfield now," he
said.

Jenine, who asked that her last name not be used, knows how hard it is
as the mother of a recovering addict. Her 26-year-old daughter has
been clean and sober for 2 1/2 years, but not after a long struggle.

"I lived a TV movie for six years," she said.

According to Jenine, she knows from personal experience that seven of
the people in the audience were the parents of children who are
addicted to drugs, which made her feel even more shame at the turnout.

"Where are people's priorities?" she asked. "Drug use is huge right
now, and it's scary. No one wants to face it, but it's a big problem,
and it's not going away."

Jenine said she thinks the police had a great message to send to
parents, but that even the police don't have a full grasp on how much
drug use goes on in the high school. Besides heroin and Oxycontin, she
said Ecstasy pills are in demand.

"It is out of control," she said.

Jenine said she was home when her daughter got on the school bus and
when she got off, since she was a stay-at-home mother. If it can
happen to her, it can happen to anyone, she said.

"I've said to my friends, if you aren't scared, be scared," she said.
"Don't say, 'My kids won't do that. My kids are good kids.'"

Jenine said Marshfield really needs a parent support group because
it's a parent's job, not the job of the police, to watch out for
teens. She said parents should be aware of how to recognize the first
signs of a drug addiction because it really should start with prevention.

She believes in drug testing as a form of prevention, and said
students should get tested when they get their physicals for sports or
other purposes. Jenine said it's not about kicking students off sports
teams, but about getting them drug counseling.

School resource officer Helen Gray said she sees the need for a
Narcotics Anonymous group for teens. They may not listen to adults,
but they may listen to other teens.

School resource officer Robert Quigley kicked off the forum by
explaining how regular use of gateway drugs -tobacco, alcohol and
marijuana - often leads to the use of other drugs. He said important
steps parents can take are to talk to their children and listen to
what they have to say about why they might be drinking or smoking, and
to talk to them about the dangers, which can range from memory loss to
brain damage.

"There's always some kind of new high they're going to try," he
said.

One of the goals of the parent night was to educate parents about the
different types of drugs, starting with inhalants and moving on to DXM
(dextromethorpan), commonly found in cough suppressants; prescription
pills including Oxycontin, Xanax, Ritalin, and Atterol, and concluding
with methadone and then cocaine.

Det. Jeff Brennan, who explained the effects of each of the drugs he
covered and also presented the differences in price, said methadone
(in the form of crystal methadone) is a growing concern because of the
chemicals used in the drug. He said a serious addict has a life
expectancy of five to seven years.

"It robs the body from the inside out," he said.

Tavares said a new development that worries police is a new law
legalizing the sale of hypodermic needles to anyone 18 or older
without a prescription. He said the police are working with the high
school on a video instructing people to call police and not touch it
if someone finds a needle.

Tavares said community support is needed to identify where young
people buy the drugs to feed their addiction. He said told the story
of a neighborhood with a known drug house, only the neighbors never
called police to report unusual numbers of people entering the home.

Tavares said people can anonymously report suspicious activity that
may be drug-related by logging on to the police department's website
and accessing the Drop-A-Dime program link, by calling the regular
police business line or even by writing a letter.

Furnace Brook Principal Al Makein said young people don't necessary
need a dealer to get prescription pills. They may take them from the
medicine cabinet at home. It was also mentioned that kids might sneak
pills from their grandparents. He added that his difficulty is sharing
real estate with the high school right next door.

Makein said communication starts at home, but also takes place at the
middle school. He said students have been the sources of information
in the past involving incidents at the middle school, even though
speaking up could cause them problems.

"Imagine the risk an 11- or 12-year-old is taking," he said.