Heroin drug combination on the rise in north Texas Schools (Houston: to buy, middle schools)

[GoPadge]

I heard this story on my commute this morning. Drug arrests related to the drug combination, called "Cheese" has nearly doubled since last year, with 122 arrests through February. So far the issue is most pervasive in Dallas ISD, but it has also turned up in Irving, Farmers Branch, Mesquite and Garland.

School administrators in Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio have not found this combination drug at their schools, and a DEA agent in the Dallas office states that "This is the only place this is occurring."

The average user is a 14 year old Hispanic male, and the youngest dealer caught so far was 11. Withdrawl symptoms are servere and can occur after on a few hits.

The campuses with the biggest problems are Cary and Marsh middle schools and North Dallas, Thomas Jefferson and W.T. White high schools. They do have licensed dependancy counselors on staff.

See http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040807dnmetcheese.39c5f2e.html (broken link) for the full story.

[Guingirl]

I have been seeing the reports of this heroin-tylenol PM combination called "Cheese" after a 11 yr old died from it in Dallas. They said that it was really very cheap a few dollars to buy it on the news.

Something else that we need to be aware of as parents.

Thanks GoPadge!

[momof2dfw]

I heard about it last fall right after school started. I asked several principals and asst. principals that I knew and they told me then that it had not been seen yet here. But they knew about it and were keeping a watchful eye out for it. With the recent deaths the schools have been having some parent resource meetings. Most of the schools that have been seeing the problem have a heavy concentration of hispanic students. It seems to be prevelant in that community for some reason. The low cost is probably one thing but from what I"ve read it is something that they think one dealer came up w/ to give to younger kids and it has spread from there as it is small enough they can sneak it into schools. Now is when I bet some of those parents were wishing they had stopped being so hard on the schools for being strict. They are going to pay the price now sadly.

[socketz]

Heroin and what ? They have to be stepping on the heroin with something if it only cost a few bucks to get high.

[momof2dfw]

Black tar herion and Tylenol. They crumble it up together. The latest was putting it in Pixy Stix (the powdered candy) as they could fool some w/ it that way. It is like $2 a hit from what I've heard and read.

[socketz]

$2 a hit must mean there is very little heroin in it and alot of sugar/aspirin.

Kids get high off this garbage ? So are they turning it into a rock and smoking it, or shooting it up ?

[GoPadge]

More commonly it's mixed with some form of Benadryl (Diphenhydramine hydrochloride). The other big issue is that there's no established mixing protocol, the local teens mix it themselves and sell it to support their own habits. The heroin content seen so far runs from 3% to 8%, and the dosage an individual is use to, can make a big difference. If you're use to a 3% mix and you wind up with an 8% cut, you're most likely going to the ER or the Morgue.

Useage stats break down to an average age of 14, where 80 percent are male, and 98 percent are Hispanic.