Series: Wasted Youth -- Cases Of Neglect (Day 4 -- 5 Of 6)

BANDING TOGETHER

After Several Drug Overdoses, One Town Took Action To Try And Stop
Further Drug Abuse

Whitman Fire Lt. Tim Grenno knew how to save the 18-year-old man
overdosing on the floor of the bathroom. The paramedic sprayed a mist
of 2 milligrams of anti-narcotic Narcan up the teen's nose. The teen
woke up and walked to the ambulance.

It is harder to find a single way to stop someone from trying heroin
- -- or get those who are addicted to stop. "You need to involve every
group in a community. You have to have law enforcement, school
officials, coaches, you have to have parents, churches, you have to
begin to look at it as a systematic approach," said Michael
Botticelli, the state's assistant commissioner of Substance Abuse
Services. There are a things people can do to help: -- Make sure
schools have programs that teach children not to smoke, drink or use
drugs and that there are consequences for every action. -- Talk to
children about drugs, about life, about peer pressure, about their future.

- -- Volunteer to coach or help start after school and summer youth programs.

- -- Welcome halfway houses into the community.

- -- Ask the schools to have a school resource officer in the schools.

- -- Throw out prescribed OxyContin or other narcotic pain relievers
once the drug isn't medically needed. Lock up any drugs you keep in the house.

- -- Write or call lawmakers, urging more -- and longer -- treatment programs.

- -- Approve funding for police, fire and education programs at Town Meetings.

- -- Form community coalitions.

Stoughton did that four years ago after a series of drug overdoses in
town. School officials, clergy, sports leaders, students, police,
parents and treatment specialists formed Operating Against Substances
in Stoughton (OASIS), a drug prevention coalition to figure out what
to do. The town now organizes forums for parents and students,
after-school programs, a junior police academy, free drug counseling,
a 14-week parenting program and hosts the Learn to Cope parental
support group's weekly meetings at the police station. Each month,
more than 40 people from OASIS meet at the police station.

"I don't think the politicians can fix these problems," said Robert
Devine, chairman of the group's steering committee. "It has got to be
the people who are going to be around. ... People have to be serious
about the drug problems in their communities. You can't change what
you can't acknowledge."

Easton brought in a consultant to work with the high school staff
after a series of overdoses, hosted forums for the community on
heroin at local churches and works with Dr. Michael Dern, the
school's physician, to get young people help quickly.

The schools also hired an adjustment counselor for the high school
and junior high school and have a full-time school resource officer
in the schools thanks to a Proposition 2 1/2 override passed by
voters last year, said William Simmons, Easton's school superintendent.

Two Massachusetts high schools -- one in Dartmouth, the other in New
Bedford -- and a school in Indiana use literature focused on the
issue by including "Losing Jonathan," the book by Robert Waxler and
Linda Waxler of Dartmouth detailing their son's battle with heroin
and his death.

"It brings home to them that this is not just about a single,
isolated event. It is about a family," Robert Waxler said. "One story
will hopefully evoke another story."

And education goes beyond the classroom. "We are dealing with
dentists, cautioning them about using OxyContin and educating parents
to see if there are other alternatives to OxyContin when it's
prescribed -- and to make sure they really need it," Norfolk County
District Attorney William Keating said.

Stopping children from using any drugs, alcohol or cigarettes -- not
just heroin -- is the foundation of prevention, several said.

"Nobody wakes up one morning and starts smoking crack, no one wakes
up and starts using heroin," Raynham officer Louis F. Pacheco, that
town's school resource officer, said.

Botticelli said education needs to be done early. "The earlier kids
use tobacco and drinking, the earlier they are to develop more severe
problems," he said.