ALCOHOL IN THE DRUG-ABUSE MIX

As heroin and prescription drugs like OxyContin grab national and local
headlines, Melrose has also been focusing steadily for two years on fixing
an older problem - alcohol abuse among middle schoolers.

Since 2003, a $90,000 grant has been funding an anti-alcohol abuse program,
called Project Northland, aimed at middle-school students.

Middle schoolers who take their first drink before age 15 are four times
more likely to become alcoholics, and are more at risk of developing drug
addictions later, said Robin LoConte and Donna Macdonald of Riverside
Community Care in Wakefield, who are managing the Project Northland grant.

But as a recent column in the Melrose High School "Imprint," the school
newspaper, illustrated, alcohol may be more popular among high schoolers,
than among middle schoolers.

"My Mondays now consist of sitting in class and listening to half of the
kids talking about who drank how much and who threw up the most this
weekend," writes Staff Writer Bobby Murphy in the March 17 edition.

"Most stories go something like this," Murphy writes:

"Haha, yeah, do you remember when he was driving us and you said you had to
throw up so you made him pull over and you ended up puking in that guy's
mailbox?"

"Uhhh...no."

Police logs often tell a similar story. At 10 minutes to midnight, last
Saturday, police received a call from the Dunkin' Donuts on Lynn Fells
Parkway for a drunken teenager getting sick in the bathroom.

A 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey of Melrose middle schoolers, conducted by
the non-profit Northeast Center for Healthy Communities, also backed up
Murphy's assessment.

In the high school, 51 percent of students reported recent alcohol use, and
36 percent reported binge drinking in the 30 days prior to the survey.
Those numbers had declined, but not by a lot. In a similar survey taken in
1999, 59 percent reported recent drinking, and 41 percent reported binge
drinking.

In the middle school, only 36 percent said they'd ever tried alcohol in
their lives, down from 59 percent in 1999. The results of a 2005 survey are
slated to come out this summer.

Police say much of the high school-age drinking goes on at house parties,
when parents aren't home.

Police are limited in what they can do when called to disperse a large
house party, said Lt. Paul Norton. But officers will often recognize kids
at a party and call their parents the next day, or simply run the plates of
parents' cars parked outside, and call from the party.

"You need parents' help as well," Norton said. "We can't be everything. At
some point in time, mom and dad have got to realize their child is drinking."

Parental involvement can be the most important factor, Macdonald said.
"Kids say the reason why they abstain is because they don't want to upset
their parents," she said. "Parents have a lot more power than they
recognize" to set boundaries.

Norton and Detective Sgt. Barry Campbell both said they think drinking is
less of a problem than it used to be. In many cases, Norton said, alcohol
has been replaced by drugs.

Campbell said when he worked the night patrol, 10-12 years ago, he would
often find parties with bonfires, kegs and 100-200 kids at the woods in
back of the cemetery.

Mount Hood, the Bellevue Golf Course, the woods off Pond Street and
Blueberry Hill, behind the Ripley School, were all popular drinking sites,
Campbell said. "They go any place they can go without being spotted."

Alcohol Abuse By The Numbers

2003 Youth At Risk Survey

51 percent of students reported recent alcohol use

36 percent reported binge drinking in the 30 days prior to the survey

1999 Youth at Risk survey

59 percent of students reported recent drinking

41 percent of students reported binge drinking