SUBURBS ARE NOT REFUGE FROM SUBSTANCE ABUSE

TEWKSBURY- Shocked expressions permeated the Wynn Middle School
Auditorium Monday night when law enforcement officials discussed drugs
and alcohol with parents.

Assistant Middlesex District Attorney Nora Todd surprised several
parents with her frank discussion about drugs and the ever-changing
dynamics of the region's drug trade.

If parents did not know it already, they found out: There are drugs in
Tewksbury and their children might be exposed to or even using them.

"One decision, one setting and that could be it," she said.

Parents learned seemingly harmless statements by their children could
be drug references. Ketamine, a powerful sedative used primarily by
veterans has street names like Special K, Kit Kat, Kelly's day, cat
valium, Super C and others. Todd said some parents might have thought
they heard a food discussion, and not a drug discussion.

It has effects strikingly similar to PCP. She also told parents that
GHB may be available to their children. She told them the marijuana
grown today may be laced with embalming fluid or PCP.

"I am here as an assistant district attorney and a mother of two
children in the sixth and eighth grade," Todd said. "I want them to
have as much information as possible."

While some parents blamed the rapid growth of Tewksbury for the
availability of drugs, Tewksbury police Lt. Dennis Peterson, the
town's leading narcotics investigator, said it is location, not new
homes.

Peterson said officers found drug transactions occurring off Route 133
in residential neighborhoods. They found them off Woburn Street. They
also found them at gas stations, restaurants and several other places
in town. The buyers come from Portland, Maine, Lowell, Lawrence and
nearby suburbs.

Detectives have said for several years that the dealers and buyers
come to Tewksbury because of its easy access to interstates 495 and
93.

Monday night, one concerned mother implored Peterson, Superintendent
of Schools Dr. Christine McGrath and about a dozen school
administrators to hire a drug counselor and fill the juvenile
officer's position left vacant last April by the death of Jim Hood.

Another mother asked why a private citizen could not attend DARE
training and re-start the program, which ended last year because of
state budget cuts. Peterson said that was nearly impossible because it
started as a police program, and there is not money available to fund
the program.

Todd said the programs are good things, but parents need to step
up.

"It is really important to educate yourselves," Todd said. "No one is
immune. It is not a phenomenon of one race or another race. In
Middlesex County, we are seeing a huge new problem in our small towns."

Peterson said the residual problems with having drugs in any community
are increased incidences of violence, including rapes. "Rape is rape,
whether it happens on a date or not," Todd said.

She cautioned about two dozens students in the audience of about 60 to
buy their own drinks, hold their own drinks and drink their own
drinks. The most prominent way date rape drugs are administered are
through crushing the narcotics into a powder and pouring them into
someone's drink.

Peterson and Todd said many drugs, including alcohol, make children
and adults lose their inhibitions. The loss of inhibitions leads to
poor decision-making, such as engaging in sex.

"Probably most sexual assaults result from alcohol," Peterson said.
"Many are not reported. There are about 10 to 15 overdoses in
Tewksbury each year."

Many occur in local hotels, but some occur at homes.

Wynn Middle School Principal James McGuire said Monday night was a
good experience.

"I think a program like we are having tonight is an important first
step," he said.

The second step is having a published, unmonitored phone number for
students or parents to call and report drug or alcohol suspicions. The
number is an opportunity for the students to anonymously tell police
or school officials that a friend or classmate has a problem and needs
help.

McGrath said school psychologists, police, juvenile probation officers
and administrators generally see the early warning signs, but another
set of eyes is always important.