HEROIN AND TEENS

In Stoughton, a 17-year-old honors student and star swimmer is spotted
by an assistant principal sticking something into her pants. It turns
out to be a heroin-filled syringe and a bag of brown powder.

In Weymouth, an 18-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl are arrested on
charges of possession of heroin and a hypodermic needle. Officers
arrested them as part of an investigation into heroin sales.

In another South Shore town - Norfolk County District Attorney William
Keating refused to say which one - two students are arrested for
heroin possession at a middle school.

The incidents - all within the past few weeks - reflect heroin's
growing popularity among South Shore teenagers. All told, eight
teenagers have been arrested on heroin charges in local communities in
the last three months.

The powerful drug costs less than a pack of cigarettes and is so pure
it can be snorted instead of injected. It is no longer an urban
back-alley poison; it is fast becoming the drug of choice in suburban
communities.

``I can't think of an issue so obviously in front of us that we are
not dealing with,'' said Keating, the Norfolk County district
attorney, who will host a seminar on heroin for parents on April 26.

Keating is right to call parents together along with teachers, school
officials, health care professionals and other concerned adults. The
problem of heroin use among teenagers is right under our nose, and it
is not just a police problem - it is a social problem.

The facts are alarming:

- -- In the first three months of 2004, more teenagers were arrested for
heroin offenses on the South Shore than in all of 1998 and 1999 combined.

- -- The problem has grown worse in recent years because of an influx of
heroin from South America that is selling for as little as $4 a bag
and is readily available to teenagers.

- -- Police say many teenagers are becoming addicted to OxyContin, the
powerful prescription painkiller that sells on the streets for $40 to
$80 a pill, and then transitioning to heroin when they run out of money.

- -- Police say heroin is also more powerful than before, leading to
quicker addiction and more overdose deaths. In Quincy, at least 13
people died from overdoses in 2003.

- -- Statewide, the number of opiate overdose deaths of people between
the ages of 15 and 24 more than tripled in a three-year span, surging
from 17 in 1998 to 54 in 2001, according to the state Department of
Public Health. Most opiate overdoses were due to OxyContin and heroin
use.

- -- In Norfolk and Plymouth Counties, arraignments of people under 21
on heroin charges have steadily increased in recent years, reaching a
total of 97 last year. The numbers are most striking in Norfolk
County, where arraignments on heroin charges have increased from 19 in
1999 to 47 last year, according to the office of the state probation
commissioner.

The statistics do not reflect the number of cases in which heroin use
goes unnoticed by parents or police; nor do they account for the
robberies and thefts committed to pay for the next fix.

But they should open up our eyes. The problem isn't in some other
town, it's in yours. And it's something we as adults need to address.