Teen Heroin Use - and Deaths - On the Rise

(CBS)  A rise in heroin abuse by teenagers across the country has led one high school to issue an ultimatum to parents: Attend a seminar on the dangers of heroin or your child will banned from the prom.

CBS News national correspondent Jim Axelrod reports more than 1,000 parents showed up to the forum in Smithtown, N.Y., Wednesday night.

It is still easy to find heroin addicts shooting up in a New York City stairwell.

"Once you like it you fall in love with it," one said.

Even these junkies know they are yesterday's news. The heroin on the street today is so pure that kids in the suburbs are now snorting it.

"When they find out they can snort it they don't think they can get addicted because they're not injecting it," another junkie said.

Those teenagers include Natalie Ciappa, a National Honor Society member at her high school on Long Island, star of school plays, and a cheerleader who sang the National Anthem at basketball games. She was everything a parent could want - and the furthest thing from the traditional picture of a heroin addict.

But she is one of the new faces of heroin addiction. Days before her high school graduation in 2008, Natalie overdosed and died.

When we found her she was already gone," said Natalie's mother Doreen Ciappa. "She wasn't breathing. We heard her last breath."

Natalie was one of 46 people to die last year from a heroin overdose in Nassau County, N.Y., a 75 percent increase from the year before. That's a troubling spike being felt nationwide.

Heroin has killed 23 people so far this year in Will county, Ill., compared to 16 last year. The number of heroin deaths in Jefferson County, Ala., has tripled from six in 2007 to 18 this year. And in 2008 there were 119 heroin deaths across Oregon - 71 in Multnomah County alone.

A small bag of heroin "is actually cheaper than a six pack of beer," said John Gilbride, the special agent in charge for the Drug Enforcement Agency's New York field office.

Dealers have refined production methods, making the drug cheaper and more powerful - 15 times as pure as 1970s heroin.

"You can do heroin once," Gilbride said, "and it may be the last chance that you get to do heroin."

Users are getting younger: More 8th graders now say they've tried heroin in the last year than 12th graders.

"So it's here and you have to accept the fact that your perfect kid could make a mistake like Natalie," said Natalie's father Victor Ciappa. "If you don't catch it in time, you're going to bury your kid."

Victor Ciappa doesn't need a survey to warn him of the danger. The reminders hang throughout his home.

[daviddiane]

I would like to share that my son died in Sept from a heroin overdose. My husband and I had discussed and warned him about drug use. We were aware that he was "occasionally" using pot and admitted to taking LSD twice. What we had no idea of was that he was snorting heroin. We couldn't believe and still can't. His incredible poor judgement has torn apart my family. I don't wish it on anyone. If only we had suspected just how far his drug use was or how extensive, we would have intervened. We are destoyed and heartbroken, as is our other son who is away at college. My son had just turned 19 years old the day before this horrific event. I can't believe he would have the nerve to sniff this junk up his nose and even bring it into our home. We tried to be loving, supportive parents who accepted him as he was and gave him the world. Maybe that was part of the problem. Drugs have destroyed my family.

[DrugRehab]

For all heroin problems vist www.InternationalDrugRehab.com

[jt92202]

My nephew died last year from a overdose of Heroin, he was trying to get clean from it and had been for a month or so. He was going to go into treatment 3 days before he died, his last hurrah killed him. Since his body hadn't had it for almost a month the amount he use to take was not the amount his body would accept that last time. He was 20 years old when he died. The heroin he received was dirty also, people had been taken to the hospital because of the heroin but it killed him. No body knows if it was the dirty heroin or the amount that he did or both but the person that sold it to him is now in jail for distributing heroin and selling heroin that he new was dirty. My nephew?s addiction stated when he was 16, the doctor prescribed Oxycontin for a snow board accident where he got hurt. He got addicted to the oxcy's and when they no longer got him high he turned to heroin. That is the story of many of our teens and young adults, I have heard this story over and over and over only with different names. He came from a good home where both his mom and dad lives together, along with his sister and brother. They were a very tight nit family but they knew over the last 6 months or so that he had a big problem and was doing everything they could to help including taking him away and getting him sober right before he died. Drugs were not part of his upbringing at all!

Heroin is ruining lives of our youth, there is some help, www.samafoundation.org (Science and Management of Addictions), this is a foundation that has been started in Washington State by some very well know people. Go to the web site and read what they have to say and how we can help. My sister does belong to the group and they are doing great things in DC trying to get help with this. Heroin doesn't only afflict the homeless, people from broken homes or mentally unstable people; it can happen in any family in any country.

The loss of him was and is very hard on all of us who love him, don't let this happen to your family or anyone else?s family. Learn the signs and don't think your family is too good for this because I know from experience it can happen to anyone!

[lulucleo]

I agree with prov1624. But I would also like to point out that when a parent tries to parent, the kids are not listening because society has taught kids that they have rights and if mom or dad yell at you or give you a well deserved spanking, it's child abuse. Apparently, we're supposed to "reason" with children now.

[AttentionDeficit]

Doing a helluva job, DEA

[robinspp]

Nothing is more harmful than tobacco.

[U_S_Drug_Addict]

the biggest Gateway drug is Alcohol.

[cidaia]

how many high school kids die from tobacco overdose?

[AttentionDeficit]

"Casual drug users should be taken out and shot..."
----Daryl Gates

Amen to that. No one has the right to engage in such narcissism, doesn't matter if it's pot or heroin or binge drinking.

Army Of Twelve: Why limit it to binge drinking? Why not any drinking? Is alcohol not as casual a drug as pot? And, Gates is a mouthy punk.

[troopf4]

Hermitdave: Hey, Obama seems to be your guy by your comments:
Listen up: Obmaa said he would correct all the bad the Bush Admin. did and make it all good for us. Move on fool and jump on the Obama wagon and lets see all those promises kept.
Oh wait a minute; Obama won't send troops to Afghanistan because his Health Care Reform is more important that saving our troops lives - does he care that without more troops they're sitting ducks. I love him saluting the coffins of the dead troops then has on his policial website a video of the American Falg being defaced to promote his agenda. What a disrespectful piece of **** Obama is!!!Check it out - anything to get relected - he's looking at 2012, to hell with here and now re jobs, people losing their homes and that it cost the tax payers $24,000.0 for every cash for clunker vehicle sold - need all those government workers to process the paperwork. The only jobs that have been created are civil service - how are they paid - from taxes.Obama: When ask about creating For Profit jobs - his answer: What in the hell is that? Community Organizers work for Non_Profit Organizations funded by tax payers.
When Obama was training ACORN he told them to target Democratic Idiots
to register to vote: Definition: Democrats with a high school dipolma, GED or lower level of education - anyone above that level had too much sense to buy into his ********..

[troopf4]

wow greco99-2009, Are you a secret spy? With all that info you need to get in touch with Obama and his gang and do something about all that corruption. Don't hold your breath thou -
Obama has done nothing about the murder rate in Chicago of young people - just a few blocks from his neighborhood.
I suppose the simplist solution is - don't take drugs - live a long life.

[greco99-2009]

CBS reports: Karzai Brother: Drug Lord, CIA Darling?
Alleged Reliance on Corrupt Brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai More Bad News for U.S. Campaign in Afghanistan.

You would have to be living in a tree if you think the Afghan villagers bring the drugs here on their own. And, it is not Taliban with connections to America's street drug dealers.

Clearly there is government involvement on the Afghan side, and very likely rogue elements of the military/covert/contractor community.

Supporting 'good drug lords' over 'bad drug loads' is a deeply flawed foreign policy.

Remember one of the first things Bush did was to send 37 Million dollars to the Taliban government for drug eradication.

[KHLady7]

It is for the weak unless you are talking about Pot...which SHOULD be legal.
I love how they are talking about heroin when how many people die from alcohol?
We need to educate kids better...with the FACTS. Not just "don't do this...don't try that. It's bad for you. It'll kill you." Explain to them how they will feel..the "positive" of it and then the negative. Explain the risks involved but in an intelligent matter.
DARE class spoke so many lies...