HUB SCHOOLS MOUNT NEW DRIVE TO HALT HEROIN

In the city's ongoing war against heroin, Boston public schools will
target students as young as 12 with drug-specific prevention programs
to combat a poison so cheap and potent, it is rearranging teen culture.

Superintendent Thomas Payzant will be sending personnel from middle
schools and high schools to a five-day training session under the
system's revamped outreach efforts, part of a citywide strike against
the addictive drug.

``It's a community-based problem and it seems to be evolving,''
Payzant said. ``You used to think of heroin as more of an adult drug.
Now it's not just attracting older teens, but younger teens in the
middle-school age bracket.''

The drug awareness campaign will stress prevention efforts in health
classes, with extra emphasis on heroin, which has been ravaging
increasingly younger users.

Added information will be going home to parents and schools will be
asked to develop prevention proposals for kids and adults through
forums, videos and newsletters, Payzant said.

The schools' effort fits into a city plan spearheaded by police and
health departments to better monitor heroin's grip on young users and
to intervene with teen users in an attempt to curb the growth of new
addicts.

``We know that in Boston and nationwide, heroin is becoming more
widely used,'' said John Auerbach, director of the Boston Public
Health Commission. ``The price has dropped dramatically; the purity
levels have increased. People are able to use heroin by snorting it,
not injecting it.''

South Boston has been plagued by cheap heroin, as have parts of East
Boston, Dorchester and the South End, city officials said.

Nationally, heroin has eclipsed cocaine as the primary drug listed by
users who enroll in public detox units. In Massachusetts, 537
adolescents admitted to state-funded drug rehabilitation programs in
1998 listed heroin as their primary drug. In 1993, that number was
just 121, according to the Department of Public Health.

A primary problem city officials are trying to combat is the
unwillingness of parents to confront the problem. At a forum held in
South Boston last fall, just 40 residents attended.

``A lot of what we are hearing is the parents don't know what's
happening,'' said Michael Kineavy, director of Neighborhood Services.
``It's very difficult to accept your son or daughter is a heroin
abuser or a substance abuser. There's a lot of denial.''

City officials believe the access and affordability of heroin has
rearranged the drug culture. A dose of heroin costs less than a
six-pack. No longer is there the fear of needle use. ``It's about the
culture,'' said Phyllis Lomas, a school nurse at Boston High School.
``In the old days, it was the culture to shoot heroin. That's what
people did. I think they're snorting it now because that is the way
it's being done.''

Kineavy said the addictive powers of heroin ultimately lead to
intraveneous use.

For Brighton parent Cliff Cudjoe, the city's plan needs to reinforce
lessons parents teach at home.

``It should be an all-out war aimed at drugs and getting the right
message across,'' said Cudjoe, father of an Edison Middle School
sixth-grader. ``Each day, you see the destruction drugs do to kids. A
lot of times parents are so paranoid about talking to kids about it.
But kids get with their peers and they can get misinformed.''