ABUSE OF ANTI-ANXIETY PILL SPREADS IN SCHOOLS

In Schools In Miami-Dade, The Problem Is Increasing

The $5 anti-anxiety pills that Miami-Dade students are peddling to each
other during school are supposed to make them giddy -- but many kids are
winding up sick.

Miami-Dade Public Schools police say it has happened at least four times in
the last month and a half: teenagers stumbling into a classroom or the
office, blabbing incoherently and complaining of stomach cramps, all of
which are side effects of what police say is the drug du jour in the
schools -- Xanax.

Sometimes, the students are so disoriented that they confess they have
taken it and tell police whom they got it from -- all without realizing it.

Millions of prescriptions are written for the drug each year in the United
States, mostly to stressed-out adults. But according to the U.S. Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and other groups that
monitor drug abuse, teens in Miami-Dade County are not the only ones
getting their hands on the drug and bringing it to school.

Students and teachers in Broward County schools say the drug is also on
their campuses, but school police there say no problems have been reported
or arrests made.

The federal substance abuse agency estimates that at least 5 percent of
middle-school students and high-school students in the nation have tried
Xanax more than once.

In one extreme case in January 2002, 28 middle-school students in
Philadelphia swallowed Xanax pills at the same time. A dozen of them were
hospitalized.

Xanax is the same drug that got Noelle Bush, the governor's daughter, in
trouble in January 2002 when she tried to get it by using a fake prescription.

'ZANY PILLS'

Known to the kids as "zany pills," "zanies" or "zany bars," the drug is
supposed to make them high the same way marijuana would. But many young
users are experimenting with the drug in the belief that it's safe.

Considering South Florida's vibrant club culture, Miami-Dade police say it
was only a matter of time before Xanax, which gained popularity as a club
drug a few years ago, transcended the club and party scene to the school scene.

"The reason there is a steady increase in Xanax is that it is a lot more
accessible and cheaper than other club drugs," said Miami-Dade Detective
Roy Rutland, who works in the narcotics bureau and is an expert on club
drugs. "From the time we began seeing Xanax on the club scene several years
ago, we knew it was going to be a problem."

Some students think the drug is popular in the schools because, aside from
being cheap and easy to get, there are no obvious, outward signs that
someone is using Xanax, although it does show up on blood tests.

Police say they could easily spot someone who has a drug in his system
because they are trained to do so, but agree that most people probably can't.

Arvida Middle, in West Kendall, and Braddock High, in Southwest Miami-Dade,
have each had two incidents recently involving Xanax, but they aren't the
only schools affected by the problem.

According to Miami-Dade Public Schools police reports:

* On Feb. 14, a 15-year-old Braddock student was arrested across the street
from the school. Police say they found seven Xanax pills and five plastic
bags of marijuana on him when they handcuffed him.

* On Feb. 11, a 15-year-old boy at Braddock was arrested and charged with
selling four Xanax pills to two 15-year-old girls at the school. About
noon, one of the girls swallowed three pills; the other swallowed one. An
hour later, the girls became disoriented and said they had become
nauseated. They wound up in the hospital but recovered.

* On Feb. 5, a 14 year-old girl wobbled into the office at Arvida Middle.
With slurred speech, she managed to tell people in the office that her
stomach was cramping and that she had taken a Xanax pill she bought earlier
that day, allegedly from another 14-year-old girl, who was arrested.

* On Jan. 23, a 13-year-old girl at Arvida swallowed a Xanax pill and
became incoherent and disoriented. Police found the 13-year-old girl who
allegedly sold the Xanax and arrested her. Police say her backpack was
filled with several other prescription drugs.

* Two students at JRE Lee Opportunity School in South Miami were arrested
Jan. 17 on charges that they sold Xanax to three other kids, who swallowed
the pills, got sick and were taken to the hospital.

SERIOUS CONCERN

School officials say they take the incidents seriously.

"We not only suspend the students but also counsel them when they come
back," said Braddock Principal Manny Garcia. "We have a counselor who is
going to set up a meeting with faculty to teach them the signs that a
student is under the influence."

At Arvida Middle, administrators were surprised to learn that the two
recent incidents of students getting sick at the school involved Xanax.

"We don't have a major drug problem here, but what we sometimes see is
marijuana, not this," said Principal Herbert Koross. "We have a counselor
here who talks to the kids about drugs. . . . But kids today are exposed to
so much and want to grow up so fast."

School police usually handle cases within the schools, while Miami-Dade and
other police departments investigate the street-level drug deals.

The Broward school district's top investigator, Joe Melita, said his office
has had no reports of incidents with Xanax.

"It's not a problem as far as we know," Melita said. "This doesn't seem to
be affecting us."

But one Broward teacher, curious about Xanax use, informally polled his
Stranahan High students on whether they knew someone who was using the
drug. About one in four students said they knew someone who was on Xanax.

"It's out there," teacher Jim Gard said.

SOURCE OF PILLS

Miami-Dade police think young people are either stealing the pills from a
parent who was given a prescription for them or are buying them on the
street from someone who got them either through fake prescriptions or from
people who sell their pills after filling legitimate prescriptions.

"It's not just a local problem, it's a national problem," Detective Rutland
said. "Everybody is hurting and suffering because you have the Medicaid and
medicare system being defrauded."

Xanax, also called alprazolam, is in a class of anti-anxiety drugs and
sedatives called benzodiazepines. Like many such drugs, it is also
addictive. Abusers can develop a tolerance for it, which eventually forms
into an addiction.

Abusers who abruptly stop taking the drug could experience seizures.
Doctors say abusers have to be taken off the drug in a slow and gradual
process, but even then, some people report that they still experience some
withdrawal.

At .25 mg a day, the drug acts as a sedative. At higher doses, it can put
someone in a hypnoticlike state. State drug officials estimate that 150
people died in the first half of last year from abusing benzodiazepines.

An overdose of Xanax is rarely fatal, but police say most users are
combining the drug with other drugs and alcohol, which can be fatal.
According to victim and witness statements on police reports, most of the
students taking Xanax in school are not mixing them with other drugs.