Kleinkauf: Dead serious about drug addiction
By Jim Kleinkauf
Wednesday, September 8, 2004

Addiction to drugs and alcohol kills tens of thousands of Americans annually. Now, according to recent News articles, deaths from heroin overdoses are rising dramatically.

"This is an epidemic," said drug and alcohol counselor Bill Phillips, who runs New Beginnings, a Framingham-based recovery program for substance abusers. In a recent News report, Phillips said heroin addiction is accelerating among the young in affluent suburbs.

"I know of five people who died from it...all from the Framingham, Milford and Ashland area," he said.

Following a national trend, heroin seems to be the current drug of choice in Metro West. It's cheap. It's easy to get. It's pure, and it's deadly. Soon it may even join alcohol as one of the major killers of Americans. Currently close to 20,000 die each year in alcohol-related fatal accidents.

So much for the war on drugs -- that costly sham was destined to fail from the outset. Just like war itself, drug addiction has been a problem from the beginning of time.

So-called drugs of choice may change according to circumstance, and the general public's level of denial may rise and fall depending on priority. But the fact remains that drug and alcohol addiction continues to kill children and destroy families, and probably always will.

It is possible, but unlikely, that the recent spate of deaths from heroin overdoses has shaken the otherwise pervasive it-can't-happen-here suburban mentality. In reality, it could be your child, and it could be your family. What would you do if your child were addicted to drugs or alcohol? Where would you go for help? How would you cope?

Hopefully, you will never have to face such daunting challenges, But with school back in session, it might be a good time to find out what your options are in the event that you have to come to terms with substance abuse in your own family.

I know without reservation where I would turn first -- to New Beginnings and Bill Phillips. The Framingham-based psychologist has worked with troubled teens for two decades. A former star athlete at Framingham High, Phillips too is a recovering alcoholic. In addition to running a substance abuse program, Phillips is Framingham's truancy officer. For many years he worked for the court counseling drug offenders. Now sober for 20 years, he serves as a crisis counselor for troubled youth.

In March 2002, I met with Philips and six MetroWest teens who gathered in Framingham at New Beginnings to talk about drinking and drugging in high school. Phillips brought the teens together in response to a News article on a study released that week by Columbia's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

Among the 145-page report's key findings is that 31 percent of high-schoolers admitted they binge drink at least once a month. The study also found a gender gap no longer existed in underage alcohol consumption. Almost equal numbers of male and female ninth-graders were likely to drink and binge.

Bottom line: Kids drink and drug earlier and more than most adults realize. And so said the six teens, who spoke freely about their experiences. Five admitted to using and abusing drugs and/or alcohol. One began drinking at 12 and picked up his first drug at 14. Another started drinking at 10 and drugging at 13. A girl, 17, had already spent time in a residential substance abuse program. She began drinking at 10 and picked up pot at 13.

The frank, hour-and-a-half meeting yielded compelling information -- none of which surprised Phillips, whose tough-talking, I've-been-there attitude enables troubled teens, along with parents and school officials, to trust him.

With New Beginnings, Phillips provides a direct approach in educating students, parents, educators, coaches and other groups about drugs and alcohol.

In an April 2001 presentation covered by the News at Southborough's Trottier Middle School, Phillips threw some surprising statistics at the parents.

He said one in five students between the age of 14 to 17 is a problem drinker. Eighty-seven percent of high school students reported trying alcohol.

Eighty percent of all AIDS cases are directly caused by drug or alcohol use.

Every Friday and Saturday night, the 10th car you pass is driven by someone who is drunk.

Since 1991, marijuana use has increased by 180 percent. One joint equals a pack of 20 cigarettes. That one joint contains 420 chemicals, 192 of which are carcinogenic.

Want to know more? Give Phillips a call at 508-416-2115 or visit the New Beginnings Web site at www.nbprograms.com.


 

Back to articles