DEA FEARS SPREAD OF NEW DRUG

Cheese Heroin, an Illegal Drug That Includes Cold Medicine and Sells
for as Little as $2 a Hit, Has Killed at Least 20 People in the
Dallas-Fort Worth Area

WASHINGTON -- Federal and state officials are stepping up efforts to
block the spread of an emerging drug menace called cheese heroin,
which has been blamed for the deaths of at least 20 young people in
the Dallas-Fort Worth area over the past two years.

The drug, a mixture of black tar heroin and cold medicine, sells for
as little as $2 a hit and is being targeted at kids, often as an
inducement to join a gang.

Thus far, the drug is largely confined to Dallas and its suburbs. But
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and other officials warn that, with its low
price and easy marketability by drug dealers, deadly cheese heroin
could spread into other communities.

"We're still seeing the highest concentration in the Dallas area, but
last year we started to see a spread to outlying cities," said Jeremy
Liebbe, a police officer with the Dallas Independent School District
who has investigated nearly 250 cheese heroin cases. "What that tells
us is that it isn't a problem that's going to go away anytime soon."

Cornyn sponsored an amendment to pending Senate antigang legislation
that would add cheese heroin to the list of targeted drugs in a
youth-oriented media campaign sponsored by the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy.

The amendment would authorize educational and advertising programs to
alert young people in targeted communities to the danger of cheese
heroin.

So named because it resembles Parmesan cheese, the drug has been
pushed heavily among Hispanic youths since it was first detected in
Dallas schools in 2005.

Arrests for possession of cheese heroin during the 2006-07 school year
increased 60 percent over the previous year, Cornyn said, and drug
treatment centers say that cheese heroin addicts are as numerous as
those seeking help for marijuana addiction.

Steve Robertson, a national spokesman for the Drug Enforcement
Administration, said DEA officials had been tracking the drug since it
first appeared and had seen no evidence that it had spread beyond
north Texas.

But because it can be produced easily from lower-grade heroin and
over-the-counter cold medication, DEA agents consider the drug a
threat and are working with state and local officials to keep it from
spreading, Robertson said.

Often known simply as cheese, the drug is often about 8 percent heroin
mixed with water and over-the-counter pain reliever. Yellowish or
tan-colored, the drug is typically sold in small paper packages or
zip-top plastic bags and snorted with a tube, straw or ballpoint pen.