FALL RIVER DRUG WAR FOUGHT ONE BATTLE AT A TIME

City's addicts continue risks

FALL RIVER -- In a small classroom tucked in the back of a downtown store, a
teen-age girl tells three other teens how her father's drug abuse scared his
family members and friends away. It made it difficult for her.

Two of the girls, who hunch over the table in their parkas, listen silently
while a third shrugs her shoulders.

This after-school program for youth offenders is one of the latest attempts
by the Fall River Juvenile Court and the Portuguese Youth Cultural
Organization to reach children who experiment with drugs before it's too
late.

Seven months ago, the court system and the nonprofit community organization
launched this pilot project to provide small groups of teens with intensive
after-school classes on drug and alcohol abuse, AIDS, anger management and
smoking.

Alan Silvia, the executive director of PYCO, says he believes this type of
program can help Fall River stem the drug problem among young people.

"We know crack cocaine is at a high point," he said. And statistics show
that Fall River is also troubled by a significant heroin problem with more
than 2,000 heroin users admitted to substance abuse counseling programs in
1998, according to the state Bureau of Substance Abuse.

The youth program requires the teens to attend one class a week for six
weeks. During that time, they are also referred to an individual substance
abuse counselor if one is deemed necessary. More than 70 percent of the 150
youths have been referred to a counselor for individual sessions.

The program also requires that parents attend the children's classes on the
first and final week. Parents are also referred to a substance abuse
counselor if they have a substance problem. Some 60 parents have been
referred to counseling.

"I know the more we can involve parents in the process, the more we can
reach kids," said Mr. Silvia.

But even with this program, Mr. Silvia says much more is needed to address
the drug problem in Fall River.

His words are echoed by other community leaders who reacted this week to a
Standard-Times series on the drug problem in the SouthCoast, which showed
Fall River with the highest number of people seeking treatment for drugs of
any community in the region.

"I don't know if you ever win a war on drugs," said Mayor Edward M. Lambert
Jr. "But you've got to make the effort."

Mr. Lambert said he has supported increased police attention on drug
trafficking and greater efforts to give young people alternatives to drugs
within school and after school.

"We've had some of the biggest arrests in the last year or two," he said,
crediting this to greater emphasis by the police.

Mr. Lambert said that he also believes the School Department has worked
effectively to educate youth in health classes and to provide after-school
programs. "We have 800 kids at our middle school level in after-school
programs."

The city also runs a youth job program that employed 350 teens last year, he
said.

School Superintendent James M. Gibney said he believes the alcohol problem
is still a larger one among school children than drugs.

"But we're hearing about more drug abuse among parents," he said. "I can't
give you any statistics, but it's a feel you get."

"Kids are coming to school very needy both physically and emotionally and
it's obvious something is going on at home to cause the kids to react the
way they do in school."

Church leaders are also talking about the drug problem and the role the
church can play in finding solutions.

The Rev. Jim Hornsby, co-rector of St. Luke Episcopal Church, said he knows
that many members of his parish, both young and old, suffer from drug
addictions.

"I don't think we ever can be sufficiently aggressive against this evil," he
said.

"My own feeling is that the most effective solutions are the old-fashioned
ones," he said. "Helping kids to be at school, making sure school is
important and helping them to get jobs."

"We try to teach kids to be responsible for themselves, to view their bodies
as part of God's creation," he said.

Back in the classroom at PYCO, teacher Elizabeth Ponte has written the word
"choices" on a board at the front of the room.

She then shows a movie to the four teen-age girls in which female prisoners
talk about how drugs sent their lives into a whirlpool of prostitution,
violence and prison.

When Ms. Ponte asks the girls if the prison seems scary, one girl says
"somewhat." Another plays tough. "I'd be able to handle it. I'd keep to
myself."