FORUM WILL EXAMINE DRUG ABUSE BY YOUTH

NEWBURYPORT - In a county where 93 people have died of drug overdoses in
the last two years alone, Newburyport is hardly immune to the growing
horror of heroin addiction.

On Thursday night, Mayor Mary Anne Clancy's Task Force on Underage
Substance Abuse plans to issue parents with warnings of what to look for,
and what to do if their child falls victim to opiates.

The public forum, entitled, "Do you know what your children are doing
tonight?" will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Newburyport High School
Auditorium.

"The message we are trying to send is that these drugs are everywhere, not
just in low-income areas," Mayor Clancy said. "In a community as beautiful
as Newburyport, it is sometimes easy to think that we don't have an
onslaught of drug use, but this is simply not the case."

A number of guest speakers will provide information about the increasing
popularity of substance abuse among young people, and how members of the
community can work together to help combat it.

The forum will also emphasize what parents need to be aware of, such as
signs to watch for if they suspect their child is experimenting with drugs,
examples of what increasingly popular "designer drugs" might look like,
and possible resources to turn to for assistance and support for substance
abuse-related problems. One of the most frightening escalating drug-related
problems on the North Shore is that of the rapidly growing abuse of opiates
among young people, specifically, the abuse of OxyContin and heroin. In
addition to the county's 93 confirmed overdose deaths, Steve O'Connell,
spokesman for District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett, said there are
another 77 believed, but not yet confirmed, to be the result of overdoses.
There have been no reported opiate deaths in Newburyport in that two-year
period.

"If not for Narcan, (a drug used by emergency and medical providers to
combat the effects of opiates) the figures would have been absolutely
staggering," O'Connell said.

Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins said he has seen opiate abuse grow
extensively over the past several years, due in large part to the
increasingly easy accessibility young people have to such drugs.

"It's often easier to find heroin than it is to buy beer," Cousins said,
noting that heroin can generally be purchased on the street for as little
as $4 to $6, often less than a six-pack of beer. It can take only one or
two uses of heroin to become addicted.

"The big thing is to educate parents, teachers, students and members of the
community about how addictive heroin is, and what it can do to you,"
Cousins said of the forum.

Paul Fleming, spokesman for the Essex County Sheriff's Department, has also
seen firsthand what opiate addiction can do.

"The prevalence of this (opiate abuse) in Essex County is much higher than
in Suffolk County or Plymouth County," he said. "For 90 percent of the
people who come to us, their reasons for breaking the law generally have
to do with problems with drug and alcohol addiction."

Cousins and Essex County District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett have been
working to target opiate abuse in Massachusetts schools for some time, with
an emphasis on treatment, prevention through education and enforcement, and
are encouraging cities around the state to host forums.

In addition to Blodgett and Cousins, other guest speakers at the forum
include Newburyport Resource Officer Keith Carter, Lynn DARE Officer Larry
Wentzel, Newburyport High School Principal Jim Lee, and Timothy Lawrence, a
firefighter in Lynn who lost his 21-year-old daughter last year to a
drug overdose. Sergeant Michael Reilly of the Northeast Merrimack Valley
Drug Task Force will present a slideshow of visuals of different drugs to
help parents identify some of the less obvious varieties of "designer
drugs," such as ecstasy, that often resemble over-the-counter medications,
such as Advil or Tylenol. Melinda Crossman, a member of the mayor's task
force and the chair of the Parent Alliance at Newburyport High School,
echoed the mayor's sentiments of misconceptions that these types of
problems aren't happening around here. She said she became particularly
concerned with the growing problem after The Daily News published a series
of articles about the escalating use of heroin among local youths.

"What struck me were the pictures; they looked just like my kids," Crossman
said, of her decision to get involved with the task force. "Let's keep
talking about it (drug abuse), so we can help our children make good
decisions, because they are ultimately going to make their own." Sheriff
Cousins agrees that parental control only goes so far. "What is scary is
when I see parents who have done a great job raising their children;
children from good, loving families who come to jail for committing drug
and alcohol-related crimes," he said. "That's when I say we have a
serious problem."