DeSoto ISD provides parents information on heroin

by Daphne Brown of of DeSoto TODAY

Straight talk about the ugliness of heroin addiction and death was the goal of a two-hour DeSoto Independent School District parent presentation on the drug commonly know as cheese.

Twenty-five documented overdoses have been attributed to the combination of over-the-counter cold medication and heroin in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Levatta Levels, assistant superintendent for support services, said. The young people in all of the cases were under the age of 21, she said.

“Dallas County is the birthplace of cheese heroin,” said Levels, who welcomed representatives with the Dallas Police Department and Region 10 Education Service Center to share the information.

“Thankfully, there have been no reported cases in the district, but I'm a parent too and, we can't close our eyes to this growing problem,” she said. “We have to be better parents, better prepared parents, knowledgeable parents.”

Levels said DISD teachers, principals and other staff voluntarily participated in a more extensive training on the same subject Nov. 29. Also, all of the district's School Resource Officers and educators from Cedar Hill, Duncanville and Lancaster were invited. The following is what was presented.

Subtleties in behavior or routine are some of the best ways for parents to gauge problems with their children. Different groups of friends that parents haven't been introduced to or slipping grades are some of the indications that a young person's attention may be diverted.

Victor Cheatham, a consultant with Safe and Drug Free Schools/Health, asked parents if they could describe everything their children had on when they left for school that morning.

“We encounter people every day and there are subtle changes that take place, but we're looking for the obvious,” Cheatham said.

Jerry Rhodes, a 35-year officer with the Dallas Police Department, said using the term cheese, what one would put on a hamburger or pizza, to refer to one of the most dangerous drugs available, is destructive.

“Parents promise me something. You will no longer use the word cheese. It's heroin, one of the most addictive drugs,” Rhodes said. “You and your children need to understand that.”

Cheatham agreed, “Saying cheese almost minimize its impact.”

Cheatham said cheese is tan-colored powder usually snorted through the nose with a tube, straw or small ballpoint pen.

“It has been most popular with Hispanic males and females, but like with anything, it begins somewhere and spreads,” Cheatham said.

For clarification, he said cheese is the combination of black tar heroin, a product of Mexico, combined with crushed over-the-counter sleep aids. Sharing photos of how it is packaged, some of the symptoms of heroin use are drowsiness and lethargy, euphoria, excessive thirst, disorientation, sleepiness and hunger and sudden changes in grades and friends.

“A heroin withdrawal is so intense - it's unlike any other drug,” Cheatham said of the signs of withdrawal that may begin within a few hours.

Other symptoms include mood swings, insomnia, headache, chills, nausea, vomiting, muscle spasms, bone pain, anxiety, agitation and disorientation - all of which may last up to a week.

“The mood swings and bone pain, for instance, have to be kept in perspective because we are talking about growing kids,” Cheatham, the father of a teenaged boy, said. “Sometimes I come home and I don't know what to expect in terms of his mood. And you have to remember that sometimes kids body parts grow at different rates, so you could very easily have a young person with a size 8 foot that isn't even four-foot tall yet.”

Cheatham said drug use hinders and damages the growth process.

“Have you ever bent a paper clip?” he asked. “When you put it back, it's never really the same. This is where we are with our children when drug use is involved,” Cheatham said.

Continuum of Drug Use

Rhodes shared what he referred to as the Continuum of Drug Use. The stages include experimentation, regular use, daily preoccupation and dependency.

“Ladies and gentleman, by the time you realize your child has a drug problem, they are in the third stage,” Rhodes said.

Moving through the signs of each stage, Rhodes said the easiest place for young people to obtain alcohol, a gateway drug, is the home. He said children know this.

“For those who say marijuana is harmless, it has 10 times the cancer causing agents that cigarettes do, and these days we know how to grow it hydroponically and we know how to cross-breed it,” Rhodes said. “Talk to your kids, be honest with them about how drugs effect the body.”

Rhodes encouraged parents to be aware of their own behavior when it comes to pain medication, for instance.

“One thing we all have in common is that we go to the bathroom, and if we're at someone else's house, what's the first thing we do? We look in that medicine cabinet. What's in your medicine cabinet right now?” he asked hypothetically.

The antibiotics for that cold or the pain medication for the back pain, he pointed out.

“We all save medications for a rainy day,” he said. “Do you know how many pills you have left? Would you know if someone took some of them?”

In the third stage of the drug use continuum, Rhodes said the user is mostly abusing more than one drug and is what is referred to as a poly-druguser.

“People in this stage are obsessed with getting high, and excuse my terminology, but they begin worshiping the drugs,” he said.

Truancy, family problems and police involvement are prevalent in this stage.

During the dependency stage, drug use increases and the user no longer abuses drugs to get high but to “feel normal,” Rhodes said. Intravenous drugs are most likely being abused during this stage and maintaining a normal school life or job are impossible, he said.

“Remember this, the younger the child, the quicker the addiction,” he said. “It's time to know who your kids are hanging with and running with.”

Stages of Development

During the earliest part of children's lives, they are imprinting. Rhodes said in addition to learning right from wrong, they are measuring that they can and cannot do, all the while garnering love, security and respect. The imprinting stages lasts until the child is 7.

The next stage, Modeling between the ages of 8-13, Rhodes said children look to adults for their behavior and their heroes. These people may be inside or outside of the family.

Rhodes asked two boys, attending the meeting with their mother who their heroes were. Both boys said the deceased rapper Tupac Shakur. When he asked two little girl who their heroes were, one said police officers and the other said her grandmother, responsible for her attendance at the meeting.

Socialization, the final stage of development, Rhodes said 14-to-20-year olds begin to learn about relationships and peer pressure is at its height during this time of their lives when parental involvement should be.

“When we were coming up,” Rhodes said pointing to some of the parents, “The adults in our lives were our heroes, our parents, teachers, coaches, Sunday school workers,” he said. “No one said parenting was easy, but we need to know what our kids are doing and saying and who they are doing and saying it with.”

Rhodes said if anyone asked his 26-year-old daughter about her dad when she was growing up that she would say he was one of the biggest rear ends you could find.

“I was, I admit it,” he said. “But I've seen too many thing go on. We need to talk to these kids about choices, whether its about drugs or not.”

Rhodes said he admired the handful of parents who made time for the meeting.

“You stepped away from the TV and you are here with and for your kids,” he said.

“Music has a message, you listen to country music, and just listening to it, you would think that the only thing life is about is getting beer, getting drunk and going out with your sister-in-law,” he said. “Think about it, what other medium has so much access to your kids? Would you let me as a 56-year-old, Dallas Police Officer, come into your child's bedroom with the door closed, every night from 7-10 p.m. and say whatever I wanted to say to your children?

“The problem is that we aren't monitoring what our kids are listening to and watching,” he said. “As for the Internet, it should be called the Evil-net because there are a lot of people out there with access to your children who want to do them harm.”

Rhodes said the ugly truth about the heroin overdoses from 10-years ago and those today is that the young people were drowning in their own vomit. He said the drugs are reacting and relaxing their bodies at the same time, and by the time anyone realizes there is a problem, panic sets in and the body regurgitates what is in the stomach and instead of letting it out, they swallow it and it enters their lungs. A lot of these kids are found with a pink foamy substance coming from their mouths, he said.

“Parents, you've got to understand what's happening, why its so important to tell your children to say no and then walk away when someone is trying to introduce them to drugs,” he said. “But what does the media tell us if we have a headache or sleepy, depressed, can't go to the bathroom or going too much? Take a pill for whatever ails you.”

He suggested parents problem solve with their children.

“Instead of ‘WWJD' or ‘What Would Jesus Do,' ask your children what would you do?” he suggested. “Tell your kids it's OK to say no and walk away. Yes, they may get teased, but words don't hurt, but drugs, cars and alcohol do. It's not easy to say no, but that's why we have to practice with them, just like we do with their reading, writing and arithmetic.”

Rhodes said there is more aspirin than heroin in the combination that is being sold for $2 in some areas. Over time, while the heroin is getting them addicted, the aspirin is destroying their liver.

“That's what people are not understanding,” he said. “Within two or three months of overdosing on aspirin, a person would need a liver transplant, and the livers aren't just sitting on a shelf at ... Parkland.

“This is serious stuff folks, and I'm sorry to have to be the bearer of such gloom and doom, but it's a huge problem,” he said.

Cheatham reminded parents that it's not pestering but parenting to want to know what your children are up to.

“There's no crime in being curious about what's in your child's backpack when they come home from school, you just want to know,” he said. “The challenge is to have open discussion with your children.”

Levels said other parent meetings would be forthcoming on topics that include violence and teen dating and abuse. For a complete list of anti-drug resources in Dallas County, visit the Today Foundation website at www.todayfoundation.org/antidrug.