REACHING OUT BEFORE HEROIN USE BEGINS

A Del. Police Force Takes An Anti-Drug Message To The Region's Classrooms.

For the police officers of Heroin Alert, victory is saving teenagers like
Justin Hottes.

On the day he attended the Heroin Alert program at his high school in New
Castle, Del., Hottes, 17, had already bought a $12 bag of the drug, enough
to get high three times. He planned to snort it the next night at home.

"I wanted to try something new," he said.

As the anti-drug assembly started at William Penn High School the
followingday in spring 1998, Hottes decided to tune it out. But he couldn't.

"It really got to me," said Hottes, recalling the program's double punch.
The officers showed graphic photos of heroin's impact on the body and a
videotape of a mother telling a heart-wrenching story of how heroin had
killed her teenage daughter.

Hottes was so moved, he sought out one of the officers and told him about
the heroin he had bought. He promised to flush it down the toilet and tell
his mother. Hottes, who had tried marijuana, vowed never to use heroin or
any other drug.

His mother, Elizabeth Hottes, was shocked when her son told her what had
happened. "He doesn't hang out on the streetcorners, he's not like the kids
you'd expect to do that kind of thing," she said. "The only thing that
matters is that he didn't do it and he flushed it."

"That was success we hadn't counted on, reaching Justin," said Sgt. Tony
Hernandez, supervisor of the six-member Heroin Alert team, which was formed
by the New Castle County (Del.) Police Department in April 1998.

The team was formed after Col. John L. Cunningham, the police chief, ordered
his department to look into the extent of heroin abuse in the community.
What the officers found startled them -- because, although heroin-related
deaths and heroin-addiction treatment had risen dramatically, heroin-related
arrests had not.

"Even though we didn't have the arrests, we knew we had addicts who hadn't
yet surfaced," Hernandez said.

This spike in heroin abuse and its lure for a new generation of users
throughout the Philadelphia region and the country was documented in a
recent series of articles in The Inquirer. Today, heroin is cheaper and more
pure than in decades past, allowing users to snort or smoke it, thereby
avoiding needles and the diseases, including AIDS, they can transmit.

The increase, as reported, is among teens and young adults, who are joining
a hard-core group of older adult users.

Delaware, as the New Castle police discovered, has an acute problem with
heroin abuse.

It was among five states with rate increases in admissions to heroin
treatment programs between 1992 to 1997, a study by the federal Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration showed. Treatment admissions
for heroin in Delaware increased from 528 in 1992 to 1,317 in 1997. Among
those younger than 20, admissions jumped from 11 in 1992 to 132 in 1997.

The state also has seen spikes in heroin-related deaths. There have been 74
deaths from heroin since 1997. In the first six months of 1999, New Castle
County alone had 71 heroin-related overdoses, of which 15 were teenagers,
police said.

"It set off a red flag for us," Cunningham said.

While the Heroin Alert team initially focused on Delaware, word spread and
it now gives presentations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. It will
give its 500th program on Saturday in Wilmington.

In the Pennsylvania suburbs, Heroin Alert has made at least 30 appearances
in schools, hospitals and community centers, and to corporations from
Doylestown and New Hope in Bucks County to West Chester and Kennett Square
in Chester County and Cherry Hill in New Jersey. The team is booked into
2000 with appearances throughout the Philadelphia suburbs.

"They can go anywhere, any time I can afford to send them," Cunningham said.

A state grant funded Heroin Alert for its first year. Since April, the unit
has been funded locally, and Cunningham is looking for grant money for the
future. With or without a grant, he's committed to keeping the program in
operation.

"It's amazing how many schools are requesting it," Hernandez said. "The one
thing we want to make sure they get out of the program is the devastating
consequences heroin has, not only on the individual but the family, and how
an addict can bring their entire family to its knees."

For More Information Heroin Alert can be reached by calling 302-571-7953.

Philly.com The Inquirer's special report on heroin can be found online at
http://health.philly.com/ where readers can write letters to the editor and
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