Index -- Special on Opiate Use (Salem News) --

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n042/a05.html

OPIATES IN OUR TOWNS: ADDICTION SERIES TOUCHED MANY IN THE COMMUNITY

My husband and I met an old friend for dinner recently. He apologized for
arriving a little late, and for being a little tired. He had just returned
from Cape Cod, he explained, where he had dropped off his 20-year-old son
at a camp. A camp? An Outward Bound camp, he explained. His son, a recent
graduate of Masconomet High School, wasn't doing so well. He had dropped
out of college, couldn't keep a job, didn't know what to do with his life.

It didn't sound like the Peter we knew. And I was worried. Moments later,
after a little small talk, our friend broke down. "Peter's hooked on
OxyContin," he blurted. "It's bad, really bad." I had heard the story
before. Dozens of times before. I had been reading these stories daily, for
weeks, as I edited our series about the OxyContin and heroin epidemic that
has a grip on our youth on the North Shore. But this was different. This
was my friend. This was his son. "OxyContin has stolen my son. It has
stolen my son." He repeated the words over and over.

After two hours of talking, my friend hugged me as we left, telling me he
couldn't wait to read the Salem News series on this drug scourge. "This
will be one of the most important stories your newspaper ever publishes,"
he said. I believe that to be true.

For months a team of reporters, photographers and editors has been talking
with young people, their parents, their teachers. We've had dozens of
interviews with the district attorney, the sheriff, doctors and
clinicians. But we knew our series would ring hollow without the compelling
stories of the people affected by the drugs.

People like 22-year-old Shawn Harnish of Salem, a Bishop Fenwick graduate
who is now a heroin addict in jail. Peabody High graduate Andrew Moskevich,
who credits his father with "saving his life" by turning him in to police
for his OxyContin-driven crimes. Robert Bradley, the Marblehead attorney
whose 18-year-old son died of a drug overdose. Herbert Levine, the school
superintendent in Salem, whose son Joel is a recovering OxyContin addict.
We thank each of them for their candor, for their courage, for their
willingness to tell their stories to try to make a difference in someone
else's life. Response to this series, published Jan. 6 and 7, has been
encouraging. Some 1,200 people packed Salem High days after the series ran
to hear Levine and his son talk about their personal experience. The
Danvers School Committee has taken action, asking its superintendent to
outline its drug education curriculum. Readers are phoning and e-mailing,
commending the newspaper for its commitment to community journalism but
reminding us that the stories must keep coming. And they will.

Our intent is to keep this story, this OxyContin and heroin epidemic, front
and center in this newspaper for as long as it takes to affect change. And
change will only come when we as a community - parents, educators,
lawmakers, law enforcement and the medical community - all admit there is a
problem and work together to fight it.

Limited copies are available of a special reprint of our series. Please
contact me if you would like copies for your classroom, office, clinic or
even your kitchen table.