MARSHALLING ALLIES IN LOCAL WAR ON DRUGS

S'town District Schedules Drug Summit; Experts Warn Against Relying On
Schools Alone To End Substance Abuse

In the wake of the November quarter-million dollar drug bust on Brooksite
Drive, and circulating tales of addiction and narcotics-related crime, eyes
are opening to the reality of teenage drug abuse in upper-middle class
Smithtown.

"Anyone who may have thought that one student's addiction, or one student's
abuse of a very harmful drug, is isolated -- they've learned that it's not
the case," said Smithtown Youth Bureau Executive Director Patsy Hirschhorn.

The Smithtown Board of Education announced Tuesday that it will hold a
summit with local elected officials, police, school representatives, civic
groups and residents on the actions being taken by the district to
counteract teenage drug use. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec.
17, in the auditorium of the Joseph M. Barton administration building on
New York Avenue. Town anti-substance abuse leaders said a countywide drug
forum is also in the works, although no date had yet been set on Tuesday.

School officials stressed that while the district includes substance-abuse
prevention education at all levels of its curriculum, teenage drug use
cannot be extinguished by teachers' efforts alone. "We're asking them to
take care of a situation that, really, we as parents have to step up and
take care of," board Vice President Bob Rossi said.

Local substance abuse experts agree that school programs cannot offer a
panacea for drug use. "There's not one program, course or model that you're
going to have ... and everything is going to be alright," said Elaine
Economopolous, who directs the town of Smithtown Horizons program, which
together with the town Youth Bureau provides substance abuse counseling and
prevention services to schools and other community groups free of charge.
"It's not one person's problem," she said.

Which is not to say, according to Economopolous and Mary Silberstein, a
Pederson Krag division director of addiction recovery services, that
school-based drug education programs are ineffective deterrents. With
funding from the state Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services, the
town offers districts and other community organizations two programs aimed
at preventing teenage drug and alcohol abuse. They are Life Skills
Training, informing fifth and sixth-graders about the realities of drug
use, and Reconnecting Youth, a small group intervention for high school
youth who have a high risk of dropping out.

Unlike the ubiquitous anti-drug DARE program, presented until recently by
Suffolk police in schools throughout the county, the town officials
emphasized that their programs are "evidence-based." The term means federal
agencies have determined the drug programs to have a measurable beneficial
effect. "They have been studied by various departments and through time on
various populations and have been found to work to prevent drug and alcohol
abuse," Hirschhorn said.

The programs seek to arm students with knowledge of the hazardous effects
of maladaptive behaviors, like alcohol and drug abuse, on their life
aspirations. The message they seek to convey is "don't take chances that
will prevent you from reaching the goals you have set for yourself,"
Hirschhorn said. In addition to information on the social and health risks
associated with various narcotics -- facts which tests at the beginning and
ending of the course indicate that students retain -- the program also uses
role-playing to aid teens in developing behaviors to deflect destructive
pressure from friends or family. "You give kids facts and you give them
skills and they will use this information and the skills they gain to make
healthy choices," said Hirschhorn.

But with all the demands on curriculum, schools often lack the available
time to hold such courses, Economopolous said. Her department therefore
encourages districts or other groups to hold after-hour drug education
events when school-time programs aren't feasible.

Still, providing deterring information, or other attempts to remove the
substance abuse risk, are less effective in isolation. According to
Economopolous, efforts to eliminate the access to or appeal of drugs should
be coupled with an increase in "protection factors." For example, while law
enforcement or school authorities root out drug providers, local businesses
could provide internships so students would have interesting, lucrative
after-hour alternatives to drug use, she said. "You try to negate the risk
factors and improve the protection factors at the same time," Economopolous
said.

This is where nonschool actors can play a key role. The Northport community
was rocked by two deaths from heroin overdose last year. Since then, said
Silberstein, a member of the Northport/East Northport Alcohol and Drug Task
Force, this coalition has had some success in counteracting drug use by
bringing all community stakeholders into the fray. Tactics they employ
involve asking retailers to change advertising that markets alcohol to
minors, for example, or organizing residents or business owners to notify
parents when students are seen hanging out in areas notorious for drug
activity.

Similar coalitions are springing up in Smithtown. This fall saw Nesconset
civic leaders organize ad hoc drug forums, while a Kings Park anti-drug
task force of residents, businesses, schools, civics and elected officials
- -- Kings Park in the kNOw -- was created last year. The group's director,
Maureen Ledden Rossi, said that in addition to regular meetings among all
the townwide actors, they have established a tips hot line for residents to
anonymously report drug activity. KP in the kNOw is also focused on raising
parental awareness of the deadly drugs their children have access to --
including opiates like vicadin and oxycodin, often readily available in
home medicine cabinets, which can serve as gateway drugs to heroin.

"Parents cannot care about problems they don't know exist," Rossi said.

Perhaps the plurality of community forums on drug abuse held in past and
upcoming weeks will erode that naivete. Horizons and the Youth Bureau also
hold regular meetings with community allies in the war on drugs, and
Economopolous said the recent swelling of these ranks is a positive sign.
"If we can pull all of this energy together so that we are working in
tandem ... I think that would be very beneficial," she said.