NORTH TEXAS HEROIN INITIATIVE CRITICIZED

State Bill Requiring Reports Of Overdoses Sought To Help Curb Trend

It's been a year since hundreds of anxious people packed an Irving hotel
for the first North Texas Drug Summit. The meeting itself was a sign that
parents from Coppell to Lake Dallas were alarmed about the growing number
of heroin fatalities.

The summit occurred amid numerous anti-drug initiatives, from tripling the
number of drug counselors in Plano schools to planning a new residential
drug treatment facility in Denton County.

But one disturbing fact remains: At least 15 more area youths fatally
overdosed on heroin in the last year. All but two of them were younger than
25.

A study released Monday in Pediatrics , the journal of the American Academy
of Pediatrics, identified North Texas as the site of one of two national
"mini-epidemics" of heroin use among suburban, middle-class youths this
year. Maryland is the other.

At this point, local officials can only guess how many more young people
survived drug overdoses. Emergency room doctors say they have treated a
growing number of teenagers, but the actual number of victims is unknown
because hospitals aren't required to track them.

Although state legislators will consider a bill next year requiring that
overdoses be reported, some frustrated parents say there should be more
signs of progress in the year since the drug summit.

"They can go talk all they want at these kind of meetings but it's not
helping anything," said Debbie Marston of Plano, whose son died of a heroin
overdose last month. "If they put all the energy . . . into a solution,
maybe we could stop this."

The spike in teenage heroin use is part of a national trend. While only
about 2 percent of U.S. teenagers use the drug, the number of high school
seniors taking heroin increased 100 percent between 1990 and 1996,
according to Pediatrics.

Staggering figure

Local figures back up the portrait. A report released earlier this year
found a 300 percent increase in the number of people in the Dallas area
addicted to heroin in 1997.

The Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, which prepared the
report, also found that drug-related incidents among those age 12 to 17
increased 47 percent from 1992 to 1996.

There also was hard evidence that the problem has become a part of suburban
life: Figures from 1994 to 1996 show a decline in "central city" emergency
room visits and an increase in suburban trips to the hospital.

If state lawmakers approve the measure requiring doctors to report
overdoses, drug experts said they will get a better handle on where to
focus law enforcement and drug prevention efforts.

"It's hard to believe that we have no database to view trends as they occur
in the community," said state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, whose
district includes many of the trouble spots. "One of the things the
emergency room physicians told me is that they have seen this trend of the
drug overdoses escalating over the last two and one-half years."

She emphasized that the reporting requirements would not identify drug
users by name, saying, "this is not a punishment mechanism, it's strictly
to identify trends."

Ms. Shapiro also has pre-filed a bill to enhance penalties for those
convicted of selling drugs that result in the user's death.

Another measure would prevent teenagers from checking themselves out of
treatment facilities until they are 18 years old. Some are now dropping out
of treatment at age 16, against their parents' wishes.

Until new laws are passed, area school districts will probably retain the
most visibility in the battle against heroin - although resources vary
widely from city to city.

In addition to numerous drug counselors, Plano school officials provide
community and state contact numbers for parents.

"We keep a good referral list for parents and every year we look together
at the list and update it," said Larry Guinn, executive director for
student services for the Plano Independent School District. "We want to be
able to direct parents."

Parents' frustration

But in Lake Dallas, at least one parent blames school officials for her
daughter's death.

Lake Dallas resident Janet Gabbert said school officials there told her
they had only career counselors available when she sought help three years
ago for her daughter, Rhyna.

The 16-year-old died last month from a heroin overdose. Her parents said
school officials should have been able to refer them to a community
resource. Instead, the parents said, they were told they should find a
pastor for help.

Ms. Gabbert said the family spent months trying to find something suitable.

"How were we supposed to know how to go about this?" she said. "How would a
parent know?"

Lake Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Thomas Davenport
said he sympathizes with the Gabberts but that "the primary role of the
school is to educate kids and, beyond that, we're really limited."

In Denton, teachers have been trained to alert school personnel to signs of
drug use in students. Counselors there have stopped sending students with
drug problems to substance abuse workshops and now refer them to Narcotics
Anonymous, where they listen to adult addicts.

"I thought by sending them to Narcotics Anonymous, teens will get a very
tangible explanation from people who have had their lives ruined by drugs,"
said Larry Mankoff, who heads Denton schools' drug abuse program.

Most drug experts say they're seeing more progress in preventing drug abuse
than in treating those who already have a problem. One reason, they say, is
that many parents are finding their health insurance doesn't provide enough
coverage for adequate treatment.

Limited treatment

Many insurance plans limit coverage to 10-day or 30-day residential
programs, experts say. Some cover treatment only once.

"We're finding kids with heroin addictions aren't getting better in these
outpatient programs," said Sabina Stern , coordinator of Collin County's
substance abuse program.

"I advise parents to do everything humanly possible to have your addicted
child in treatment as long as possible," she said. "That may mean using a
college fund, borrowing from grandparents or selling the boat."

Adults also need to work on their own mindsets, Ms. Stern said, adding,
"Parents don't take drugs seriously enough."

One of the most hopeful signs, experts say, may be coming from the Denton
County Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, which is working on a plan to
offer long-term residential treatment to children who need it.

Denton County officials are considering funding the effort through a
proposed sales tax on alcohol and tobacco.

Thomas Turnage, clinical director of the Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug
Abuse, praised that effort as a model for the rest of the region.

He said better coordination among law enforcement agencies, school
districts and hospitals could make the anti-drug battle more consistent
throughout the region.

But the lack of a regional anti-drug strategy - much less a sizable funding
source - has slowed progress in the fight, he said.

"Everyone's got different views and the most complicated part is to get
them to all come together to a common mission or a common vision," Mr.
Turnage said. "Individually, we all try. But we haven't seen anyone that's
been able to devote the leadership necessary."