'These Are Good Kids Making a Bad Choice'

PRESCRIPTION DRUG DEATHS ZERO IN ON ATHLETES, ONE-TIME USERS

Editor's note: This is the second part in a series on prescription
drug abuse in the greater Newburyport area.

Police engrossed in the drug war admit the battle to stop
recreational use of potentially deadly prescription drugs is
different from the traditional campaign to stop the use of illegal
drugs like heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

Police and legal officials in New Hampshire and Massachusetts agree
the recreational use of prescription drugs among teens and young
adults is more rampant and complex than most people believe. Seabrook
police think prescription drugs are 90 percent of the town's drug problem.

In 2005 and 2006, there were at least 291 drug-related deaths in New
Hampshire, according to statistics from the medical examiner's office
provided by Assistant Attorney General Ann Rice. Although some deaths
involved more than one drug, with alcohol often in the mix, 87 deaths
were traced to abuse of the prescription drug methadone, 40 to
oxycodone, 31 to diazepam, and 17 to fentanyl.

In Massachusetts, Steve O'Connell, spokesman for the Essex County
District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, said that as of this September,
40 confirmed deaths from drug overdoses had been recorded this year
in Essex County, and many more suspected drug deaths are awaiting
toxicology reports to confirm the cause. Of the 40 known drug deaths,
15 - or almost 38 percent - were confirmed prescription drug overdoses.

Law enforcement officials agree the escalating pattern of
prescription drug abuse is frightening and proving very hard to stop.

To begin with, they said, those abusing prescription drugs don't fit
the usual profile of drug addicts. They aren't primarily kids from
poor or dysfunctional homes. They aren't disenfranchised youth living
on the streets. They are high school athletes, college students and
the kids next door.

After investigating three deaths involving a mix of prescription
drugs and alcohol in one a six-month period in Seabrook in 2005, Det.
Sgt. Michael Gallagher alerted The Daily News to the problem.

"Historically, when we were called to an overdose scene, we'd arrive
to see an underweight, malnourished junkie who'd overdosed on heroin,
usually with the needle still sticking into his arm," Gallagher said.
"But when a kid is shooting hoops with his pals on the basketball
court one day, and dead of an overdose of prescription drugs and
alcohol the next, this is truly alarming."

"Big Swing"

Law enforcement officials can only speculate why this problem has
surfaced. They believe people are taking prescription drugs to get
high because they think they're safer and not as "dirty" as using
heroin, crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine or marijuana. The
stigma of being a junkie doesn't seem to apply in their minds when it
comes to abusing prescription drugs.

"There's been a big swing over the years away from heroin to
prescription drugs," said Capt. Russ Conte of the N.H. State Police.
"Maybe it's because kids think if you're going to use a 20 milligram
oxycodone, at least you know it's from a pharmacy."

The change in Seabrook, for example, was relatively quick. In 2003
and 2004, the war in Seabrook was against the use of heroin, which
was cheap and abundant. Yet by 2005, Gallagher and others said, the
trend began to change to prescription drug abuse. Currently, police
believe prescription drugs are 90 percent of the drug problem in Seabrook.

Gallagher said that Lt. Kenneth Gill of the Essex County Drug Task
Force and Lt. Terry Kineen, supervisor of New Hampshire State Police
drug unit, the prescription drugs abused most often include diazepam
(Valium); amphetamine-dextroamphetamine (Adderall prescribed for
attention deficient disorder); hydrocodone (Vicodin); oxycodone
(OxyContin, Percocet, Percodan); clonazepam (Klonopin); propoxyphene
(Darvon); hydromorphone (Dilaudid); lorazepam (Ativan); fentanyl
transdermal patches (Duragesic); and methadone wafers (synthetic morphine).

Used correctly, under the supervision of a physician, in the correct
dosages and never in combination with alcohol, these drugs serve
needed medical purposes.

Used incorrectly, they kill.

Dosages are critical because along with reducing pain or anxiety,
these drugs depress the central nervous system to block the sense of
pain, but as a side effect, they also depress respiration.

"You use too much, you stop breathing," said Salisbury police Chief
David L'Esperance, who lost his son to a methadone overdose earlier this year.

Kineen and Gallagher said kids don't understand the critical
importance of dosage when dealing with prescription drugs. Gallagher
said kids are known to chew transdermal fentanyl patches, absorbing
the dose all at once, but the patches are ment to be absorbed through
the skin slowly over a three-day period.

OxyContin tablets are prescribed as time-release tablets that come in
a variety of doses from 5 milligrams to 80 milligrams. They're
prescribed only for those in severe, chronic pain, such as cancer
patients. Yet recreational users and addicts take a shortcut to get
the medication into their systems as quickly as possible - often with
an alcohol chaser - to get high.

"Kids are crushing these tablets, which bypasses the time-release
action of the pill," Kineen said. "Crushing rushes a huge amount of
the drug into the bloodstream all at once. The side effect is a
severe depression of respiration. Death can occur quietly after a single dose."

Affluent Families

On the street, these drugs command a high price, given what they cost
at the pharmacy. Unlike heroin, which can be purchased for $5 to $10
a bag, or a six-pack of beer, oxycodone sells on the street for $1 a
milligram, L'Esperance said. Using that formula, the 80 milligram
oxycodone pill costs about $80.

"Kids from affluent families are almost more at risk, more likely to
get involved with prescription drug use," Gill said. "They're the
kids with the money to pay $80 for oxycodone. They're the ones with
the cars and transportation."

And being good students or athletes doesn't necessarily keep kids
away from recreational use of prescription drugs, he said. A football
player who downs an oxycodone with a beer at a Friday night party to
get a great high and celebrate winning the big game would never even
consider buying a bag of heroin, Gill said. That athlete probably
looks down on the "druggie" who snorts or shoots heroin. But athletes
might take an oxycodone pill or a methadone wafer as an adventure to
have a little fun, Gill said. They think: What can it hurt? It's a
legal drug, isn't it?

"These are good kids making a bad choice and ending up with a life
decision," Gill said.

It doesn't take a lot to become addicted physically or
psychologically to the euphoria these drugs create.

Gill gave a real-life example: former Peabody High star pitcher Jeff
Allison, who ended up in jail in North Carolina in August instead of
playing professional baseball in Florida for the Marlins. Allison is
in jail because he couldn't break his overwhelming needed for
oxycodone, which he began using in high school, Gill said.

"I think this kid got a $1.8 million bonus to sign with the Marlins,"
Gill said. "If you had walked up to him when he was in high school
and said, 'Here, have some heroin,' I bet he would have told you,
'Stay away from me with that filthy stuff.' But it was OK for him to
take oxycodone. This kid could really throw the ball. He was a star.
Now he's in some jail."

Allison's story is a tragedy of a talented kid making a bad choice
that will haunt him for the rest of his life, Gill said.

Every expert interviewed for this article and series asked that the
same message be conveyed: Parents who think they're kids are too
smart, too careful, too scared or too well-brought-up to get involved
with this drug trend need to think again, and they need to talk to
their kids early and often.

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MOST ABUSED PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

* diazepam (Valium)

* amphetamine-dextroamphetamine (Adderall)

* hydrocodone (Vicodin)

* oxycodone (OxyContin, Percocet, Percodan)

* clonazepam (Klonopin)

* propoxyphene (Darvon)

* hydromorphone (Dilaudid)

* lorazepam (Ativan)

* fentanyl transdermal patches (Duragesic)

* methadone wafers (synthetic morphine)

Source: Lt. Kenneth Gill of the Essex County Drug Task Force and Lt.
Terry Kineen, supervisor of New Hampshire State Police drug unit