NEW ENGLAND IDENTIFIED AS HOTBED FOR HEROIN

Bush Official Suggests School Drug Testing At Boston Summit

BOSTON -- New England has the worst heroin problem in the nation, and
one possible step to reduce it might be broad-based drug testing in
the schools, President Bush's director of drug policy told the
region's governors Wednesday.

"I think it's an idea that has to be supported in local communities,"
said John Walters, director of the federal Office of Drug Control
Policy. "Unfortunately, communities usually make the decision after
more than one tragic death."

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney called the anti-drug summit held in
Faneuil Hall Thursday "unprecedented." It focused largely on how to
deal with epidemic heroin use in New England, which is three times the
national average.

Karen P. Tandy, administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, offered a grim analogy: "It is big business. You might
as well be sitting at the border of Colombia in this New England region."

Tandy outlined how cocaine dealers had created a growing market for
heroin by giving out free samples with sales of cocaine and crack. In
Boston, one-dose bags of heroin can be purchased for as little as $4,
less than a pack of cigarettes, although in most cities in Connecticut
the price is about $10 per bag.

In Connecticut, heroin use has been rising over the past decade, and
along with it, overdoses of the drug. In 1997, heroin caused 15 deaths
in Connecticut, compared with 107 in 2001 - nearly one-fourth of all
drug-related deaths, according to the Office of the Chief State's
Medical Examiner.

Tandy said some bags of heroin are stamped with cartoon frogs or
Martians to appeal to young teenagers.

She mentioned Bridgeport as a place notorious for its potent, 90
percent pure heroin.

She also cited the Willimantic section of Windham, Conn., where two
men were recently caught selling 300 bags of heroin within 1,500 feet
of an elementary school.

To help quell heroin addiction in smaller municipalities like
Willimantic, the DEA is establishing a task force including state and
local authorities that will provide a broad combination of
jurisdictions to combat major suppliers.

Tandy and Walters said the heroin being dealt on the streets today is
more pure than ever, and is frequently inhaled rather than injected, a
trend that has lured more teenagers to use it as a recreational drug.

Because so many children are exposed to drugs, Walters said, the
problem must be treated as a public health issue.

"If we want to reduce the number of people in prison, we have to stop
young people from starting," Walters said.

He said the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld drug testing in schools as
long as it is not used as punishment. The testing must be confidential
and used only as a way to place students in treatment programs, he
said. As an example, Walters cited a school in Pittsburgh that
required drug testing of high school students after three girls died,
two from overdoses of heroin and one from the prescription pain-killer
OxyContin.

In a New Orleans high school, 90 percent of the students who test
positive for drug use do not test positive again after they receive
treatment, proof that early intervention works, Walters said.

Tom Murphy, a spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Education,
said decisions about discipline and policies related to drug use have
traditionally been made at the town or district level in
Connecticut.

Murphy said he knows of instances where specific groups of students -
athletes, for example - have been subjected to drug testing. "But
that's different from testing the whole group of people ages 5 to 18
who are required to attend school," Murphy said.

Walters suggested that individual districts would have to decide how
broadly or narrowly to administer drug tests.

Among the potential complications of instituting a broad-based testing
policy, Murphy said, were objections and legal challenges that might
be made by parents on their children's behalf.

"This is a volatile issue," he said.

Philip D. Tegeler, legal director for the Connecticut Civil Liberties
Union, said that parents would have legal ground to object to such
sweeping drug probes.

"The courts have only authorized random drug testing for certain
after-school activities," Tegeler said. "The Supreme Court has never
suggested that schoolwide random drug testing would be permitted under
the Constitution."

At the summit, Romney said he was "filled with outrage" that dealers
were handing out free bags of heroin, and wondered if state, federal
and local authorities were "working as well together as they can."

Tandy said law enforcement agencies are working together, but police
must refocus their efforts, particularly on the dealers' cash.
Nationwide, drug users spend more than $65 billion a year to purchase
illegal drugs, while federal, state and local law enforcement officers
combined seize less than $1 billion of that every year, Tandy said.

"It's about the money. And that is where we are going to be hitting
them hard," she said.

The federal and state leaders agreed that more federal money is needed
for the drug fight.

"We're going to debate whether to send $87 billion to rebuild Iraq,
but we're debating nickels and dimes for treating millions of
Americans who are dying [of drug use] every day," Connecticut Gov.
John G. Rowland said. "We've got to put this on the front burner."