SUMMIT SPEAKERS SEEK AMMUNITION IN WAR ON DRUGS

More Money, Facts And Talk Sought

By Tony Hartzel / The Dallas Morning News

IRVING More money, more education and more border security are needed to
fight the region's growing teen drug problem, according to participants at
Tuesday's North Texas Regional Drug Summit.

The event, organized by state Sen. Florence Shapiro, RPlano, drew about
400 representatives from cities in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton
counties to Irving's Sheraton Hotel.

There community leaders and state and national politicians shared a stage
with high school students, who gave the liveliest presentation. Their
singing of "Lean on Me," they said, was meant to show that no one group
parents, children or the community can tackle the problem alone.

Suggestions ran the gamut. U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm announced that he will ask
retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the U.S. drug czar, to name North Texas a
"highintensity drug trafficking area" next year. Such a designation would
give area law enforcement agencies access to millions of dollars in federal
funding and boost cooperative efforts with federal agencies to fight the
proliferation of drugs, the Texas Republican said.

"If this problem exists in Plano, it exists everywhere," Mr. Gramm said.
"When we've got teens in Plano dying of overdoses of heroin, clearly this
is out of control. This is a war we are not yet truly fighting. But this is
a war worth fighting."

Hoover Adger Jr., deputy director for the President's Office on National
Drug Control Policy, said a $195 million national public education campaign
set to begin next month is intended to "cool the heroin chic."

The blitz is needed, he said, because 141,000 more people began using
heroin in 1996, and the number of high school seniors using the drug
nationwide jumped 2 percent, he said.

"Many Americans simply want to believe drug abuse is not their problem. But
we know they're wrong," Dr. Adger said.

Mr. Gramm said he is reluctant to support spending millions on a public
education campaign. He and U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson, RPlano, said they would
prefer to add more Border Patrol agents along the U.S.Mexico border.

About 85 percent of the heroin in the United States now comes from Mexico,
federal drug enforcement officials say.

Many community leaders who met in small focus groups Tuesday afternoon
noted that prevention and education are crucial. But another man with a
familiar name gave the group some advice gleaned from helping his
18yearold daughter overcome her cocaine addiction two years ago.

Local plant expert and radio talk show host Neil Sperry listed several
things that he said would make the drug battle easier for families
struggling with addiction. One of the most important to him was better
insurance coverage. His insurance company would pay for inpatient treatment
only after his daughter Erin twice failed outpatient recovery programs, he
said, so the Sperrys skipped the outpatient programs and paid for her
treatment on their own.

"My daughter is too important to me to let some cheap insurance company
that is not paying the bill keep her from getting the needed treatment," he
said.

Mr. Sperry also called for better state rehabilitation facilities,
followup programs for people who have completed rehabilitation, stronger
state family codes to help parents have more legal control over their
17yearolds, harsher punishments for those with multiple convictions for
selling drugs and the placement of drug counselors in schools.

He also encouraged people to keep talking about the problem.

"The more open we are about it, the more likely we are to come to a
solution," he said.

Ms. Shapiro said Tuesday's dialogue grew out of concern about drug use in
Plano, particularly the recent heroinrelated deaths of at least 11 youths
with Plano ties.

"Heroin has been around for a long time. This time, it has come back with a
vengeance," Ms. Shapiro said.

A Plano police task force on heroin was created in September. Three weeks
ago, Plano Senior High School junior Erin Baker became at least the 11th
area youth to die of a heroin overdose. A few days later, 1,500 area
residents attended a community meeting on the drug problem.

Drug use today can be deceiving, said Plano Senior High School senior
Jennifer Arnold, one of about 30 teens who attended Tuesday's summit.

No longer is drug abuse confined to the stereotypical youths with long hair
and earrings, she noted. Anyone can become addicted and show few physical
signs initially because heroin can now be swallowed or smoked instead of
injected.

In recent months, she said, she and her peers have publicly vowed to break
the strong code of silence that usually accompanied teens' experimenting
with drugs. Teens now are less inclined to overlook even their peers'
tobacco and alcohol use because it may lead to heroin experimentation, she
said.

Although she didn't know any of the dead Plano youths, Jennifer said their
overdoses have affected everyone.

"This is a war we're fighting. Every time we lose someone, that is a battle
we've lost," she said.

Facilitators from the University of North Texas will take all the summit's
ideas and develop the action plan that all communities can use, Ms. Shapiro
said. It probably will require involvement from everyone and should include
ideas to keep children from ever experimenting with drugs, she said.

"This is a battle that must be fought family by family, community by
community, one child at a time," she said.