WHAT DRUGS ARE AVAILABLE IN MOORE, AND WHAT DO THEY DO?

This is the second installment in a five-column series written for The
Pilot by June A. Vetter, executive director of Drug Free Moore County Inc.
The articles focus on trends in drug use in smaller communities. The
remaining three columns will appear inside the Opinion section on
subsequent Sundays.

Comfortable little hamlets across Moore County seem, on the surface, like
innocent pockets of calm that are totally void of the big city problem of
drugs. But are they?

Joseph A. Califano Jr., chairman and president of the National Center on
Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, said, "Most
Americans persist in seeing drugs as an overwhelmingly urban problem. For
many years, statistics reinforced that impressionistic view as drug use in
smaller cities and towns lagged well behind, but the sores of drug abuse
and addiction that we had allowed to fester in our urban ghettos today
infect every hamlet in America."

Rodney Skager, professor emeritus of the Graduate School of Education and
Information Studies at the University of California, said at a recent
conference,

"Substance use has for a considerable time been normalized among mainstream
American adolescents. It is firmly embedded in the teen social scene."

A youth worker in the southern part of Moore County agrees. "I work with
kids from middle and upper socio-economic families," she said. "They
confide in me that they are experimenting and they are doing it because
they say it is fun and it is the excitement of the high."

The Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) reported in 1999 that a larger
percentage of eighth graders in rural areas were more likely to have used
marijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine and amphetamines in the recent past than
those in large metropolitan areas.

What drugs are in North Carolina and Moore County?

Alcohol is still the drug of choice among teens in Moore County. John
Corio, director of science, health, physical education and athletics for
the Moore County Schools, said recently, "Gun cabinets and alcohol closets
should have one thing in common. Both should be locked." While alcohol is
easy to obtain because it is often in the home, other drugs are also quite
accessible.

Marijuana from both Mexican and local sources continues to be abundantly
available. Considered harmless by some, in reality it disrupts normal brain
functions, resulting in both short- and long-term effects, which include
memory loss, learning difficulties and inability to complete complex tasks
or to drive safely. In 1998, nearly 77,000 people were admitted to
emergency rooms suffering from marijuana-related problems, an increase of
more than 373 percent since 1991. One joint contains four times as much
cancer-causing tar as a cigarette.

Cocaine is readily accessible. It is extremely dangerous and may cause lung
damage, heart attack, seizures and even sudden death. Crack cocaine is a
less pure type of this freebase cocaine and is extremely strong and very cheap.

Methamphetamine is a prescription drug that serves many with health
problems but it is the homemade brand that pops up in meth labs often found
in homes, garages and other places that is deadly. Crystal methamphetamine,
commonly called "ice" because of its appearance, is extremely powerful.
Methamphetamine can cause serious brain, heart and kidney damage as well as
other problems for the abuser.

OxyContin is prescribed for cancer patients and others who suffer from
severe pain that is expected to last for extended periods. The special
time-released coating on a tablet, which may contain 10, 20, 40 or 80
milligrams of oxycodone, allows a patient to systematically receive the
drug to control their pain over a period up to 12 hours. Abusers have found
a way to get around the coating and take the full dosage at one time,
causing many to overdose during their first experiment with the drug.

Pharmacies in both Carthage and Aberdeen were broken into during the past
year and had OxyContin stolen. Some pharmacies now refuse to keep the drug
on site.

Next week: What Danger Lurks in Your Medicine Cabinet?