PROGRAM SEES GROWING NUMBERS OF YOUNG ADULT HEROIN ADDICTS

Miguel Prieto regularly sees the havoc caused by heroin, crack and liquor.

But only recently has Prieto, the founder of Hispanic Urban Minority
Alcohol and Drug Addiction Outreach Program, encountered the number of
young adults, barely out of their teens, whose lives have been shattered by
addictions to heroin.

Since July, nine of the 43 people treated in the Cleveland program's Casa
Alma for men or Casa Maria for women were 18- to 20-year-olds.

"There is a very young population coming into treatment now," Prieto said.
"Heroin is accessible and cheap, and that is one of the main reasons we are
seeing so many more young people" enrolling in the treatment center.

Experts say the increase mirrors a national tend.

"On a logical level, it makes sense if people are starting to use at
younger ages, then they are experiencing addiction and doing something
about it at a younger age," said Howard Simon, spokesman with the
Partnership for a Drug Free America, based in New York. "It just follows
the trends of younger initiation with drugs."

While overall drug and alcohol use by Ohio's youngsters is down and falls
below national averages, a disturbing trend emerged from the survey
conducted this year for the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction
Services: Young Hispanics are more likely to try drugs and alcohol than
their white and black counterparts.

Half of the 652 Hispanic eighth-graders surveyed in Ohio said they had
drunk beer within the past year, according to the Parents' Resource
Institute for Drug Education, or PRIDE, an Atlanta-based organization that
monitors drug use among young people. Thirty-nine percent of the 42,051
white eighth-grade students surveyed said they had drunk beer within the
past year; 28.3 percent of 4,170 black eighth-graders also reported
drinking beer within that period.

And nearly 30 percent of the 652 Hispanic eighth-graders said they had
smoked marijuana within the past year. Fifteen percent of white
eighth-graders and 23 percent of black eighth-graders reported they had
smoked marijuana.

"We're seeing usage in younger children unheard of 10 years ago," said
Stacey Frohnapfel, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug
Addiction Services. "We're seeing less usage overall, but what we do come
across is younger children starting to use drugs and alcohol."

PRIDE has surveyed Ohio's fourth-, sixth- and eighth-graders before, but
the most recent survey was the first in which the state statistics were
broken out by race, said Frohnapfel. More than 165,000 students, ages 9 to
14, participated in the PRIDE survey from September 1998 to January 1999.

The Hispanic Urban Minority Alcohol and Drug Addiction Outreach Program is
Ohio's only treatment center that caters specifically to Hispanic adults.

The program addresses the language barriers and differences in cultural
values and customs of various Latino groups. Clients are able to speak
Spanish during their counseling sessions and other activities.

Many of the young adults in the drug and alcohol treatment program have
been referred to the center through the juvenile court system.

At 21, David Nevarez of Cleveland was the youngest client in treatment
during a recent 40-day residential program. Nevarez, who is addicted to
heroin, said he learned from the experiences of older adults in treatment.

"When I hear about their experiences, like living on the street, I don't
want to go there," said Nevarez. "They are like counselors to me.

"I love the way they treat you here," he said. "They talk to me in a way I
can understand. It makes me feel real comfortable."

The agency serves about 12,000 people annually through its 14 programs,
which include drug prevention and intervention assistance that targets
Cleveland's bilingual schools; parenting classes; and HIV/AIDS, violence
and abuse and pregnancy prevention programs.

The nonprofit agency, with a budget of more than $1 million, draws funding
from the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, the state and foundations.

Casa Maria has been a lifeline for 37-year-old Virginia Rivera, who entered
treatment for the fourth time last June for a heroin addiction that had
left her homeless and without custody of her children.

Now Rivera is working part time as a monitor at the treatment center. She
is also enrolled at Cuyahoga Community College. Her goal is to become a
chemical dependency counselor.

"Today I feel hopeful, responsible, respected, and I like myself," Rivera
said. "Being surrounded by my culture helped me to recover."