SILENT SCOURGE TAKING TOLL

'Cheese' Heroin Problem Quietly Escalates Among Young Adults, Leaves
Treatment Centers Scrambling to Keep Up

The headlines about "cheese" overdose deaths have faded, but
Dallas-area treatment centers still struggle to keep up with a high
number of teens as young as 13 addicted to the mix of heroin and sleep
aids.

"It hasn't let up," said Janet Anselmo-Henson, manager of the Dallas
County juvenile department's substance abuse programs. "Kids are still
using, and they're starting at a young age. We're seeing several kids
who have graduated to injecting heroin, not just snorting it."

In fact, the number of adults in their 20s seeking treatment for
heroin addiction is rising and "frightening," said Dr. Jane C.
Maxwell, senior research scientist for the Addiction Research
Institute at the University of Texas at Austinwho has analyzed
state-funded treatment data.

The number of North Texans in their 20s entering treatment for heroin
addiction during 2009 hit 1,866 - up from 1,534 in 2008 and 1,209 in
2007. Many of them were teens when the epidemic started.

Local drug treatment centers are scrambling to meet the
demand.

Dallas County's juvenile department added 20 beds in August - for a
total of 60 - to accommodate youths addicted to heroin, Anselmo-Henson
said. And Nexus Recovery Center in Far East Dallas plans to build a
new dormitory, partly because of the increase in cheese heroin addiction.

"We continue to see girls admit to treatment listing cheese as their
drug of choice, and it has become a gateway drug," said Abby Foster,
Nexus' director of development and public relations. The expansion
will increase the agency's capacity from 18 to 30 beds for
adolescents.

'It's Heroin, and Heroin Kills'

Maxwell said calling the drug "cheese" detracts from its
danger.

"Let's just be honest: It's heroin, and heroin kills," Maxwell
said.

At least 30 local teens age 18 and under died from overdoses of cheese
heroin between 2005 and January 2009, according to a Dallas Morning
News analysis of toxicology reports from the Dallas County medical
examiner's office. No deaths have been made public since, and no
agency tracks heroin overdose deaths.

Heroin-related arrests dropped in recent years at Dallas schools,
according to Dallas Independent School District figures. School police
have made 22 arrests during the current school year through March,
compared with a peak of 149 during the 2006-07 school year.

But the number of North Texas teens seeking treatment for heroin
addiction in government-funded facilities has remained steady,
according to the state data compiled by Maxwell.

Last year, 436 teens in North Texas entered treatment for heroin
addiction. That number has remained steady in recent years, from 434
teens in 2008 and 467 teens in 2007 - up from 210 in 2006 when heroin
first started to spike. Teens from Dallas County made up the majority
of heroin addiction admissions statewide.

A Teen User's Ordeal

Sixteen-year-old Ashley Rosenstiel of Frisco, who recently finished
treatment at Nexus, said she skipped school, quit her after-school job
and ran away from home after starting to use the heroin mixture a year
ago. She quickly needed cheese every day to avoid withdrawal symptoms
and started using the drug intravenously.

"I quit caring about anything else," she said recently after packing
her few belongings in her small dorm room to go home. "All I cared
about was getting some cheese."

Temptation to use after leaving residential treatment can be fierce,
officials say.

But Ashley said she had a plan for staying off cheese. She now attends
Serenity High School in McKinney, a school for students in recovery.

"I'm not going to have any of the same friends," she
said.

Ashley, who fell behind in school, plans to catch up and go to college
to study to become a broadcast journalist. Ashley said she felt like
she now has the ability to stay off drugs.

"When I was on drugs, I felt like I was worthless," she said. "I feel
a lot better about myself. I feel stronger."

Dallas County first started a cheese task force in 2007 after several
fatal overdoses. The group continues to meet regularly and has
expanded its focus to include other drugs, said Debbie Meripolski,
executive director of the Greater Dallas Council on Drug and Alcohol
Abuse.

She said she worries that the community may falsely believe the cheese
epidemic is over.

"I think a lot of people think it's gone away because it's not on the
front page of the newspaper," Meripolski said. "But it's still out
there."