HUNTERDON ADDRESSES ITS HEROIN WOES

RARITAN TWP. - Marianne Skolek did her homework.

The Hunterdon County resident went to Narcotics Anonymous meetings to learn
more about the dangers her kids face from drugs and alcohol. Skolek said
those dangers often start within Hunterdon County.

"You can't tell me that (kids) will drive to Newark or to Easton to get
their first taste of heroin," she said Monday at a Hunterdon County
substance-abuse summit. "They're getting it here in their own back yard.
After that - they'll drive to India to get it."

Few of the 250 people gathered here doubted there is a strong need to end
drug abuse.

County officials put the summit together to address the at least eight
confirmed heroin deaths in Hunterdon County this year.

"Do we have a drug problem in Hunterdon County? Yes, we do," said Lt.
Kenneth Harding, who has spent 30 years in narcotics bureaus with state
police and the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office.

He told the story of a 13-year-old Somerville, N.J., girl he once arrested
during a drug sting in the Flemington area. Even at her young age, the girl
was selling heroin and prostituting herself to support her habit.

And that heroin was about 8 percent pure, compared to the 75-percent- pure
variety selling for $5 per bag today.

"Our kids - I call them our kids, 13 to 25 years old, - they can't handle
heroin that strong," he said. "If we are going to curb this epidemic as I
call it ... if we all work together, we can beat this problem."

Hunterdon County Prosecutor Stephen Rubin, county Superintendent of Schools
Dennis Cox, and treatment experts all said the best way is to let addicts
know that help is available. Also, communities need to identify who is
doing drugs and police need to keep drugs out of teen- age and adult hands.

Rubin offered data on how far drugs have permeated society.

Since 1997, his office made 1,853 drug arrests. The cumulative tab for all
of these arrests topped $4 million, he said, until the seizure by state
police last week of more than 500 pounds of cocaine in Union Township. The
tally now stands at $10 million in about four years, Rubin said.

Those on the front lines of anti-drug efforts - abuse counselors -said
tobacco and alcohol still top the list, while heroin has spiked in
popularity along with Ecstacy.

All experts said the best defense starts within the family, then works outward.

Julie Weihl of the Delaware Valley Parents Group, which struggles with the
issue in the Delaware Valley Regional High School, said the group has made
small steps by involving parents.

It's a start, she said.

"We figure that if we can make one parent not send one kid to a drug party,
and if that happens once a week, we've done our job," she said.

There is no silver bullet, said Angelo DiOrio, administrator of the
county's Human Services Department.

"It's difficult to get the strategy, I know from previous experience that
if we only address one part of the problem another one is going to replace
it," he told

During the summit, law enforcement officials, drug treatment experts and
school officials stressed the need to increase interdiction, identifying
the problem and intervention.

Freeholder Marcia Karrow said she saw the problem while serving on a grand
jury in 1994 and knows America has not won the war on drugs.

"Why? Is it access to money," she rhetorically asked. "We can police and we
can check (kids') drawers and offer after school programs. But why" hasn't
the problem gone away, she asked

Those who need help with a drug problem or want to offer police tips can
call the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office at 908-782-DRUG or the
Hunterdon Helpline at 800-272-4630. Both numbers are confidential.