CAMPUS POLICE MAKE HEROIN ARREST

UNC Asheville Campus Police made an arrest Jan. 6 for the possession
of heroin, the only non-marijuana drug-related arrest made during
January and February, according to the campus crime log.

The majority of drug use and arrests at UNCA involve soft drugs like
marijuana, according to campus police crime logs, but students should
be informed about all narcotics and addiction potential, two local
substance abuse counselors said.

"Information is hardly sufficient, and most anti-drug campaigns use
fear tactics, which have been proven not to work," said Marie Nemerov,
25, a substance abuse counselor who works for ARP Phoenix, a substance
abuse services group.

Information and education about addiction and drug use are lacking in
the educational environments, which adds to societal negligence,
Nemorov said. The perception among most people is that marijuana is
considered the gateway drug, but nicotine fits the description more
accurately, Nemerov said. "If you look at the part of the brain that
is involved with addiction, nicotine is now considered the gateway
drug," Nemerov said. "It is one of the most addictive substances, and
it stimulates the part of the brain that all the other drugs
stimulate. Once you have stimulated that part of the brain, it is like
priming the pump."

An academic study published in April 1997 in the Journal of School
Health titled "Psychosocial and pharmacologic explanation of
nicotine's 'gateway drug' function" concluded that nicotine is a
gateway drug. Adolescent and young adult nicotine users develop
learned behaviors, including that the drug alters moods, and users
often use the drug as stress relief, according to the study. This sets
a precedent for chemicals making them feel better. The fact that
nicotine is legal for people older than 18 and easily available makes
it an unsuspecting gateway drug, Nemerov said. The Drug Enforcement
Agency does not include nicotine on its list of drugs and chemical
concerns, but does include cocaine and marijuana. "Pot is the most
widely used drug in college, but I went to a private college so I saw
a lot of powder cocaine, too," said Nemerov. Cocaine possession
arrests are not frequent in the campus police crime logs, unlike
marijuana possession, but the drug is easier to hide and essentially
odorless, Nemerov said.

"We see mostly marijuana and underage drinking," said Steve Lewis,
UNCA chief of police, when asked what drug and alcohol problems are
most frequent on campus. "And one or two recent cases of prescriptions
being in the possession of the person it wasn't prescribed to."

Prescription drugs are some of the most addictive, especially
benzodiazepine, said Matt Gannon, 25, a UNCA psychology graduate who
works for the Western North Carolina Treatment Center.

Benzodiazepines are a class of central nervous system depressants
commonly used to treat insomnia and anxiety, according to the DEA.
Pharmaceutical benzodiazepines include alprazolam, Xanax and
clonazepam or Klonopin. Gannon works with patients addicted to opiates
at the treatment center, which uses a methadone maintenance treatment
plan. Opiates and benzodiazepines are the two most-abused classes of
prescription pills, he said. Methadone is a synthetic drug used for
detoxification from opiates. When used at the proper doses, methadone
does not impair the user and can be effectively used to transition
addicts off opiates, Gannon said. "Basically, what I do right now is
attempt to get people stable on their methadone doses and manage their
cases," Gannon said. "Statistics show that methadone is one of the
best ways for opiate addicts to get their lives back." Hyrdocodone,
morphine, oxycodone, oxycontin and percodan are all pharmaceutical
opioids, according to the DEA. Using these addictive drugs can quickly
ruin lives, Gannon said.

According to a 2005 study by the Harvard School of Public Health, the
non-medical use of prescription opioids represents a problem on
college campuses, and one in every four colleges had a 10 percent
prevalence rate for non-medical use of opioids.

Gannon, who graduated in May 2007, said he did not encounter many
prescription opiates while at UNCA.

"In Asheville and at UNCA, you are going to see the hallucinogens,"
Gannon said. "But marijuana is the most pervasive at UNCA." Marijuana
is not often used exclusively, Gannon said. Many of the patients he
sees who are on methadone maintenance treatment plans to become
independent from opiate addiction test positive for marijuana in their
drug screens, he said.

Marijuana can be habitually addictive, and patients continue to use
marijuana despite risking their future in the treatment program,
Gannon said. According to Gannon and Nemerov, the patients with whom
they work are different from the general college populations.

"The majority of the patients I work with are indigent," Nemerov said.
"They are homeless, below the poverty level and mainly addicted to
alcohol and crack cocaine."

Nemerov said many of the patients she sees are artists, mainly
musicians, and most of them have above-average intelligence. Nobody is
too smart for addiction, and college students should continuously
educate themselves, Nemerov said.