QUINCY PARENTS GET AN EARFUL

Heroin Forum: Purity, Use And Addiction Treatment Is Up, Cost Is Down

QUINCY - Heroin use and the purity of the drug are way up, and its cost is
way down.

That, says Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating, is a lethal
combination.

''Janis Joplin overdosed at a 16 percent purity level,'' Keating told a
Quincy audience last night, referring to the rock singer who died in 1970.
''Kids today are using 80 percent, which is high enough to possibly make
their first time their last.''

Parents in Quincy got an earful about the dangers of heroin during a forum
at Quincy High School.

The forum, on prevention of drug use by middle school students, had a panel
consisting of personnel from the Norfolk County's district attorney's
office, psychologists, probation officers, police and the parent of an addict.

''Yes, there is a heroin and OxyContin addiction problem in Quincy, but it
is not particular to Quincy,'' Keating said at the start of the 90-minute
lecture and discussion.

Over the past year, the number of heroin addiction treatments in Norfolk
County has doubled, he said. The Northeast also has seen a dramatic drop in
the cost of heroin, which illegal dealers have available in good supply,
and an increase in the purity of the drug.

The cheap price makes heroin a more affordable choice for middle school and
high school students who cannot maintain a more expensive addiction to
OxyContin.

OxyContin, a prescription narcotic, is considered a gateway drug to heroin.

''As a parent, admitting my son had an addiction to OxyContin and heroin
was hard to swallow,'' said panelist Joanne Peterson, a member of Learn to
Cope, a parent support group.

She said her son, now 22, has been in and out of addiction treatment
programs for three years. She stressed that any perception that heroin is
more common in urban neighborhoods and in back alleyways is false.

''We lived the American dream: nice house, two cars, a boat. He was a good
student, athletic, and yet he was taken by the drug.''

Panelist David Abrahamin, clinical director of New Hope Transition Support
Program at Bay Cove Human Services in South Weymouth, discussed the drug's
addictiveness and the side effects.

''If a middle school student takes heroin on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
by Monday morning they are feeling what the addicts call 'jonesing.'''

Once addicted, the person is addicted for life, Abrahamin said. Any form of
mind-altering substance, such as alcohol, can result in a relapse.

''A treatment that is less than 90 days has a 100 percent relapse'' rate
because it is incomplete, said Sgt. Robert Devine of the Stoughton Police
Department and the Norfolk County Heroin Task Force. A treatment-center
stay should delve into the biological, social, psychological and spiritual
components of the addiction, he said.

''If you think your child is using drugs, they probably are,'' Devine said.

''Parents, talk to your kids. Part of parenting is prying,'' he said.

Checking who, what and where children are going is also helpful, he said.

''You can start tonight by throwing out old prescriptions. OxyContin should
only be prescribed for chronic, long-term pain.''