Dangerous New Drug Mix Hits Dallas Schools
EmailKids as young as 11 are getting hooked on a menacing new mix of drugs. Known as "cheese" among Dallas middle-schoolers, it is a snortable high with a simple recipe: mix heroin with Tylenol PM.
The concoction can be lethal. An 18-year-old Dallas girl died three weeks ago. She had been using "cheese" all weekend, her father said.
Alarmed police in Dallas alerted national authorities to be on the lookout for "cheese." When ABC News contacted DEA headquarters, however, reporters were told emphatically that this new drug is a "non-story." Some officials are concerned that publicizing it would only increase the use of the drug.
Michelle Hemm, Clinical Director of the Phoenix Academy Rehab Center in Dallas, wants to raise a red flag to the DEA and parents. "It’s cheap and easy — a 12-year-old can mix it," she said. "When you see 11, 12, 13-year-olds snorting cheese, there’s definitely a story."
In Dallas, just since January, there has been a surge in heroin seizures compared to the same period last year, according to Deputy Police Chief Julian Bernal. The heroin comes across the border from Mexico and eventually falls into the hands of teenagers and preteens on school grounds, say police. Completing the mixture with Tylenol PM is as easy as opening most household medicine cabinets.
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How are these kids getting heroin? I would think someone would figure out how to stop the drug dealers from getting these drugs on the streets. With this many children using I would think busting a few small dealers could lead to the bigger dealers. This is baffling that it is so available.
Posted by: Connie kartell | May 17, 2006, 11:19 am 11:19 am
I think this is a very good story. I’m the mother of three teenage boys and we need to be on the look out for these kinds of things to protect our children. Awareness is the only way to help keep our children off drugs. Knowledge is Power.
Posted by: Nicki | May 17, 2006, 2:44 pm 2:44 pm
Is this something than more self-serving propaganda from the people who support the drug war? It is hard to understand what earthly benefit could be gained by mixing Tylenol with heroin. Unless you took big enough doses of Tylenol to do yourself serious damage it wouldn’t make much of a difference in the “high.”
So, where do kids get the idea to do stupid things like this? As one major study found “The warning functions as a lure.” After this article, thousands of kids who never had any thoughts about Tylenol and heroin will get the idea that — because it was in the news — there must be something exciting about it.
We have been there before with this kind of reporting. Anyone who doubts it should read the Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs. You can find it at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer under Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy.
Posted by: Cliff | May 17, 2006, 3:34 pm 3:34 pm
This article should be a huge wake-up call for our government. It’s not so much about how simple it is to make this new concoction, but rather that HEROIN is getting in the hands of young children. When will everyone WAKE UP and see that jail sentences, easily avoided by big money drug dealers, are not the answer…they should be publicly executed immediately upon capture. The “war on drugs” as is, is a joke. This story is just another huge piece of evidence.
Posted by: Mike | May 17, 2006, 3:40 pm 3:40 pm
Knowledge is power. And Knowing is half the battle. Some other mindless motto.
Posted by: nada | May 17, 2006, 3:59 pm 3:59 pm
Comment from a 53 year old single white female from the flower power generation. Doing drugs is a matter of choice. However, an 11 year old doesn’t get the big picture…they only see peer pressure…addiction will follow and another family is ruined. Legalization could help take the away glamour, lower the crime & murder rate plus maybe turn into a cash crop for the USA????
Posted by: W. Amason | May 17, 2006, 5:11 pm 5:11 pm
I am a recovering Heroin addict. As long as people are willing to pay, drugs will always be available. We should get real about drugs and drug use, and instead of closeting our youth, we need to inform and educate, rehabilitation instead of jail for drug users. Legalize drugs, and we take the money away from the criminals and terrorists. Holland has the least drug use per capita of any western country, and they are very pro-active with education, rehabilitation and legalization. (message to parents of children using Heroin, it is unlike any other drug and is extremely addictive, and they will do anything to get it, long term (6 months or more) rehabilitation and 12 step is the only solution)
Posted by: Sean Ranger | May 18, 2006, 4:28 am 4:28 am
The questioned is how is Heroin getting past our ports, luggage screeners, dog sniffers, and TSA’s, when this drug comes from the Opium plant that is grown in Mexico, Colombian, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanna, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
Yes, a percent of it possible through the traffic of illegal aliens entering through the border of Mexico.
And unfortunately, we have troops in Afghanistan looking for Bin Laden, and I pray that the ethics is still within that region and our military, although I have read articles and accounts of leadership turning their head.
God Bless
Posted by: Victoria Rum | May 18, 2006, 7:51 pm 7:51 pm
ha, the government will never understand, never..obviously.. the “War on Drugs” is one of the most stupid things that was ever made in the u.s.a i mean come on drugs take you away from reality and drugs will never dissappear..
this story about heroin and tylenol is ridiculous, kids are dying everyday from more dangerous things and it’s mostly because of how parents are raising their kids..yes, peer pressure may be the reason why a kid or teen first uses a drug but they use it again because they like having the feeling of no worries and getting out of there hate filled lives..kids and teens are so mean to their peers these days..it’s a wonder why kids are mixing heroin and tylenol PM…
hmm lets think about why the kids made “cheese” instead of where they got it…then we can go and stop the dealers…but to me finding why the kids would do that is more important then stopping the dealers because that is impossible….
Posted by: Lily | May 19, 2006, 12:05 pm 12:05 pm
Hey George Bush! Think an open border is just for illegal aliens to come across? If you do, I have a nice condo in Iraq for sale.
Posted by: Jeff | May 19, 2006, 2:32 pm 2:32 pm
To all of you that say, “How are these kids getting the drugs” and “The cops should be able to bust some small dealers to get to the big ones”….obviouslly you never did drugs in your younger days, but its not that easy….if it was don’t you think there would be less drug dealers in your community???
Posted by: Chrystal | May 22, 2006, 1:16 pm 1:16 pm
The stated goals of current U.S.drug policy — reducing crime, drug addiction, and juvenile drug use — have not been achieved, even after nearly four decades of a policy of “war on drugs”. This policy, fueled by over a trillion of our tax dollars has had little or no effect on the levels of drug addiction among our fellow citizens, but has instead resulted in a tremendous increase in crime and in the numbers of Americans in our prisons and jails. With 4.6% of the world’s population, America today has 22.5% of the worlds prisoners. But, after all that time, after all the destroyed lives and after all the wasted resources, prohibited drugs today are cheaper, stronger, and easier to get than they were thirty-five years ago at the beginning of the so-called “war on drugs”.
Posted by: Common Sense | November 29, 2006, 1:46 pm 1:46 pm
I agree with an earlier poster, awareness is the best way of warding off potential of becoming drug junkies.
Posted by: Drug rehab | December 15, 2006, 12:50 pm 12:50 pm
Why mix heroin with tylenol? If the main goal is to sell heroin I dont understand why it is being mixed. It should be interesting to see if tylenol is taken off the shelves the way the cold med’s used to make crank have been have been taken off the shelves.
Posted by: dwayne | February 27, 2007, 5:44 pm 5:44 pm
I live in Dallas TX, nice area, live in a 22-year old gated community near Plano. We have gotten over having a drug lab here in our complex (most people are renters – owners don’t want to run crim bacground cks, go figure), dealers in meth. Now we have a heroin lab, and in an adjacent bldg. is where the dealers come to get their bags.
I hear their conversations, see traffic during the day that is very suspicious (one person stays in the vehicle, while one or two go into the apt. for around 5 minutes). At night, esp on weekends they have very steady traffic, rowdy and wreckless drivers.
I have done lic plate cks, and so far all but one owner has a criminal background (Asian male, polite, well-educated, white SUV, lives with parents in Plano).
We are told to call Dallas Nacotics during the day b/t 8 am and 5 pm, and call 911 and lie that there is a disturbance at that apt. That is all that we can do.
It took two years to get the meth people out. My friends stopped coming over back then. They still don’t want to visit here.
What do we do? This is crazy. These people burgle my neighbors apts, break into cars, have fights, litter the complex with broken glass, used condoms, empty drug bags with residue, etc.
These guys and gals are white, young, and some look like college kids. Some are Hispanic, older Cowboy-looking. Do you know your kids and where they go? Hey Plano upper class – who do your kids hang out with? Are they using your truck or car to transport and sell drugs? Are they users?
Posted by: pastafarian1 | March 4, 2007, 11:00 am 11:00 am
In my previous post I mentioned a heroin lab at my complex. I actually meant “speed” lab. But heroin users frequent that apt and the other one mentioned. One recovering addict said that a person could get “anything they want…” from that apartment. I wonder if they are dealing in cheese also…
Posted by: pastafarian1 | March 6, 2007, 12:15 am 12:15 am
I meant to write that the HOA’s rep told us to, or else they will not come out. We have an officer that is working with the complex on crime issues, but what we had to do is pay for off duty cops to watch the meth people ( I still don’t understand why we had to pay for undercover and surveillance cops). That cost us 40,000. last year, and our dues went up dramatically.
Dallas police say to call 911 to report any suspicious activity, but if you mention drugs, they will not come out. The dispatcher gives out the narcotics div’s phone number to call during the weekday.
Posted by: pastafarian1 | March 6, 2007, 12:22 pm 12:22 pm
I am the mother of an adult daughter who committed suicide by hanging. Heroin was just one of the drugs bigger than her ability to get clean and stay that way. Abuse of prescription drugs for her mental dysfunctions didn’t help things either. I believe that the drug use caused the mental health problems, that drugs that change the brain can change a person enough that they never can be who they once were. I also believe that behavior that is constant, becomes character, which in turn changes who we are and how others see us.
I wish there was something I could say to let everyone know that everything I’ve learned in the wake of my daughter’s death seems to go back to the basics of life and death.
Life, summarized by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs… psychological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization, and death summarized by Elizabeth Kuebler Ross’ five stages of death and dying… denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, seems to sum every human experience up fairly well.
Meaning that it all comes down to the “self,” with genetics, mental health, occupation, environment, behavioral conditioning, external influences, society, peer pressure, economics… so many factors that can play a part in who we are and the choices we make. It is also like Newton’s Law… for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; if we could only learn from the brilliant minds of the past.
Addictive behavior is something that may never have a cure, maybe it is too deeply engrained in some, and we either have it or we don’t. I don’t have any answers, but all I know is that once someone’s life becomes so rock bottom, the number of victims to a single tragedy are countless, and that every life is a life worth saving, but if someone doesn’t want to be in this world, they will find a destructive way to get out of it, and heroin is just of the ways to get out of it fast.
My daughter, her lifestyle, and her sometimes erratic behavior, caused her to become almost unrecognizable to those that loved her and tried to help her. This was a beautiful baby girl, a promising teen, and a gifted, talented woman, who lost it all to addiction and then left a young son parentless.
This is not just one mother’s heartache; it is a global issue that needs to be managed one addict at a time, with prevention rather than cure, the focus.
I hope that this reaches at least one person and profoundly changes the way they view things. These people that are dying are somebody’s family, friend, neighbor… fellow human being, and they need help.
Posted by: Mother | June 1, 2007, 4:50 am 4:50 am
Mother, I am so sorry for your loss. I also hope you can reach at least one person with your message.
Posted by: Pastafarian1 | June 17, 2007, 9:51 pm 9:51 pm
I don’t understand children. I am 21 now, but when I was 11 I couldn’t tell you what heroin was. Times have changed drastically. If these 11, 12, and 13 year olds are getting heroin from “drug dealers”…well it just makes me sick to think about it. Don’t people have any moral standards? In support of the kids, I know first hand when peers begin to do things (whether it be drugs or alcohol) others feel the need to do it as well. I know there will never be a day where drugs are cpmpletely gone, but I pray that at least they are not in the hands of people that do not understand the negative side.
Posted by: Lindsey Bembry | March 30, 2008, 12:11 am 12:11 am