What's in your cheese? How about a little heroin

The Truth Clinic

By James W. Breedlove

Ahhh, the wonders of cheese! It seems to be intimately intertwined in every aspect of our lives. It is served as a main meal, snack, garnish or topping. It is grated, chopped, sliced, melted, and spread. It is paired with appetizers, fruit, wine and salads. And, when stumped for something to give for that special occasion, one has only to select from a vast assortment of fabulously wrapped cheese boxes.

Cheese is ingrained in the modern English language and some words are so common that they have universal acceptance. "The Big Cheese" is used to identify the most important person in a group, "say cheese" is the prelude that prepares a person who is about to be photographed, "cheese heads" are known to be the diehard Green Bay football fans and "cheesy" implies that something is cheap and of low quality.

According to the National Dairy Council some form of the many varieties of cheese is a safe and convenient way to get the recommended daily allotment of calcium and essential nutrients to assist in preventing dental caries, hypertension, heart disease, and osteoporosis. There are even cheeses that can be tolerated by those maldigesters of lactose.

Kids used to die, figuratively, to go down to the local hamburger joint and order a luscious cheeseburger with all the fixens.

Then a few years ago our innovative drug dealers developed a new modern cheese targeted to the juvenile and teen market that was not identifiable with anything J.L. Kraft had in mind when he patented the process in 1916 that effectively took cheese from the specialty shelf to the mass market.

Now our children are literally dying from the new cheese they have created.

North Texas has had more than 18 teen deaths since 2005. The current problem in Dallas County reaches far beyond the predominantly Hispanic cluster of northwest Dallas schools where the drug—a new form of heroin called cheese—was first identified by Dallas school police almost 20 months ago.

It has become the popular method to achieve a high in the classroom. Even with the media publicity over the number of youths dying, the number of users is increasing. According to the Dallas Morning News arrests for possession in more than 16 Dallas city and suburban schools have jumped 82 percent this year.

As is normally the case for young users hooked on a new drug treatment programs and facilities are in short supply while the demand skyrockets.

Five years ago, the state health department's budget accommodated 19 North Texas teens to be treated for heroin addiction. In the first six months into this school year the number had grown 600 percent to 135 at more than 10 times the cost. No black youth have been included in the North Texas cheese statistics. Treatment centers like Dallas' Phoenix House are feeling the strain. There's not enough money to permit using all available beds. Treatment time has been cut from six months to six weeks. It seems a shame that so much money is wasted in Iraq while drug support programs for our children are under funded.

Dallas-area treatment center statistics show that the drug's growing use has led to a significant younger demographic being admitted into their programs. The previous typical clientele of 15- to 17-year-olds admitted through court order now includes 12- and 13-year-olds admitted by parents. Michelle Hemm, the clinical director of the Phoenix Academy of Dallas, a drug treatment facility for teenagers, stated that individuals as young as 11 have been admitted as heroin addicts and are also functioning as dealers in the schools.

Drug traffickers bring the raw black tar heroin into the country mainly from Mexico. Homeland security and the border police seem to have no strategy for stopping the flow of the heroin.

Cheese is formed by combining the heroin with crushed tablets of over-the-counter common cold medications, such as Tylenol PM or Benadryl which contain acetaminophen or diphenhydramine respectively. This cheese mixture contains approximately a two percent to eight percent heroin purity level. The eight percent purity level is normally enough to addict a young user.

The powder is snorted instead of being injected. One tenth of a gram, which is one "hit," costs about $2. One quarter gram costs $5. These prices are designed to be compatible with the money student's have for lunch.

The initial response to the new drug is the same old failed policy. Focus on strict law enforcement. Past history has shown that depending on politicians, police and prisons to handle what is primarily a medical and psychological problem only makes the drug problem worse. Apprehending young users, sending them to jail without adequate rehabilitation, and appending them with arrest records undermines their chances for a productive return to society unless they are high profile celebrities.

The current U.S. Drug War is very similar to the Iraq War—an unmitigated disaster with the only tangible result being the destruction of American lives.

Is America's only defense against this addictive new drug restricted to those who are so lactose intolerant that cheese in any form is off limits?

James W. Breedlove is a former president of the Fort Wayne Branch of the NAACP. Comments or opinions can be sent to him at www.truthclinic.com.

This is part of the May 16, 2007 online edition of Frost Illustrated.

Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you. Click here.