TEEN USE OF SPEED UP, ACCORDING TO AGENCY

Experts Fear Repeat Of 1995 Heroin Fad

AUSTIN -- Three years ago, anecdotal evidence of increased heroin use among
Texas teen-agers set off alarms among addiction specialists. Despite their
warnings, 21 youths in North Texas alone died in a heroin haze since 1995.

Now signs of surging abuse of methamphetamines have the same drug experts
worried. Especially troubling is the growing popularity of "meth" or
"speed" among young Texans, including weight-obsessed girls, according to
the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

While data is sketchy, the consensus among the experts is that it's just a
matter of time before methamphetamine use among Texas youths turns deadly.

"It's not epidemic proportions yet, but they've seen the first blips of
indicators -- and it's not unlike the first blips of indicators they saw
about heroin three years ago," said Robert Nash, spokesman for Partnership
for a Drug-free Texas, a nonprofit group that places anti-drug messages in
the media. The partnership will launch a national ad campaign today to call
attention to methamphetamine abuse, which is most prevalent in the
Southwest, because a major offshore source is Mexico.

"Like never before, you will see a tremendous amount of anti-drug messages
on TV and radio and in the newspapers, billboards and some movie theaters
and on the Internet," Nash said. One of the targets will be young women.

"A lot of young women -- girls, even -- are using amphetamines to stay
thin," Nash said. Last year only 51 clients ages 17 or younger were treated
for methamphetamine abuse by TCADA-funded programs. That represents fewer
than 2 percent of the 3,067 juveniles treated for drug or alcohol abuse.

But even that small number indicates "meth use among Texas youth is on the
rise," the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse said, and it can be
expected to mirror the increased use of speed among adults, 5 percent of
whom were treated for methamphetamine abuse last year. (Before 1997, TCADA
did not keep separate records on juveniles treated.)

The National Institute on Drug Abuse said abuse of methamphetamine can
cause heart and brain damage, memory loss, aggression, brain damage and
psychotic behavior

Because the drug is often used intravenously -- although it also can be
snorted or smoked -- its abuse is associated with the transmission of
hepatitis and HIV.

Since 1993, Texas has logged more than 1,200 "adverse" effects, including
eight deaths, from use of methamphetamines, whose active ingredient,
ephedrine, is commonly found in diet remedies. Ephedrine-containing dosages
"have been used to get high, stay awake, lose weight, enhance athletic
performance, boost energy levels or attempt suicide," said the commission's
report.

Despite anti-drug initiatives, children increasingly are seeking
methamphetamines in any form, officials said. "School-age children consider
over-the-counter drug products containing ephedrine to be `legal' and cheap
alternatives to amphetamines and other illicit stimulants and
hallucinogens," a report from TCADA said.

In Austin, the drug is "very popular in the topless bar scene and around
the university," the commission said, citing input from drug counselors,
researchers and law enforcement agents. In Houston, methamphetamines are
"perceived as a substitute for cocaine and as a palliative for dope
sickness," the report added.

Officials believe Houston has not experienced the upsurge in
methamphetamine abuse that some cities, such as Lubbock, have witnessed.
Commission researcher Jane Marshall said data reflect "low" usage of speed
in Houston.