DRUG PROBLEM HIDES AMONG THE MUNDANE

We've got numbers. We just don't have statistics.

"It's right under your nose, but you can't see it," said State Police
Lt. Dennis Brooks.

As leader of the Middlesex District Attorney's office special
investigations unit, he's trained to notice drug deals going down.
He's also trained to notice shifts in drug use.

He can tell you how many methamphetamine labs have been discovered in
the region this year. Three. One in Lowell, one in Everett, one in
Chelmsford. He can tell you "New England is the number one region for
heroin addicts" and "the traditional cocaine and heroin routes are
clearly entrenched here." He can tell you "most of your heroin
addicts out there are 18 to 25." And he can tell you "it's just sad
to see a whole new generation of addicts." But drug dealers don't
release quarterly sales reports, police don't know about every user,
and hospitals don't have to report all overdoses to police. That makes
it hard to see the big picture.

What's out there? What's changed in the past year or two, since we
first noticed our suburban high schoolers turning to heroin because
it was cheap and easy to get?

"The biggest things right now are Ecstacy and Oxy(Contin)," said Bill
Phillips, president of New Beginnings, a Framingham-based
"comprehensive wellness education initiative for schools, parents and
the community." "Things go in cycles," said Phillips. When parents,
police and school officials take the heroin threat seriously, "heroin
goes down" but cocaine use goes up. Alcohol and pot are a constant.

"Kids don't think beer and pot are dangerous," said Phillips. Then
there are "over-the-counter drugs, Coricidin, cough medicines." Kids
"go in there, get a bottle of NyQuil, chug it down. Kids are chewing
five or six (Coricidin pills) and buzzing their brains out." Even
alcohol-heavy vanilla extract can be used as a drug. "Kids chug it
down and it smells like they've had the best breath mint in the world."

But how can you measure how much vanilla extract is going into cakes
and how much is going into kids' mouths nationwide?

Local cops can tell you what's on the streets. "We see a lot of
crack," said Marlborough Detective Sgt. Stephen McCurley. "It's gone
back from powder cocaine to crack."

Heroin use has also increased, "which has a huge effect on crime in
the city," he said. Crack and heroin addicts need money to feed their
habit, bringing more burglaries and armed robberies.

In Ashland, "what's mainly used here is marijuana and cocaine," said
Police Chief Roy Melnick.

"We still see some marijuana, some cocaine, crack, some heroin," said
Milford Chief Thomas O'Loughlin. But if there's a trend in Milford,
it's less marijuana and "more of the harder drugs," he said, and
they're "very inexpensive and much more potent."

Down the road, "our guys are coming in with a lot of marijuana
arrests," said Franklin Deputy Police Chief Stephan Semerjian.
"Marijuana and alcohol." "Marijuana, in the past, it was get the
giggles, get a Number 2 Meal at McDonald's," said Phillips, the
Framingham counselor. Now, "it's psychoactive. It's a higher grade of
marijuana."

"Marijuana is the most frequent drug found" by police in Sudbury,
said Detective Sgt. John Harris.

Framingham and Blackstone police both said there's heroin, marijuana
and cocaine around.

"We'd be sticking our head in the sand if we said it isn't around
here," said Holliston Chief James Peterson.

"The sad reality is anything you want is available," said Franklin's
Semerjian. "You go to any barroom in America and someone will hook
you up," said Brooks. So what's the answer?

Like the figures on drugs, there isn't one. There are
many.

Brooks likes Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey's proposal to require hospitals to
report all overdoses to the state, "so we can get a true picture of
what's going on." Phillips would like more education and support
programs. "The whole thing is prevention and education," he said. "It
takes everyone" to fight drugs, said Brooks.

It takes parents. It takes police. It takes programs in schools and
laws on the books that make it tougher on drug dealers and easier for
those who sincerely want help.

But the first step in the fight is to realize how big the problem is.
Every addiction "affects nine or 10 people in the family," said
Brooks. Add in the crime victims.

That adds up to a pretty big problem indeed.