Harford heroin deaths increase, but declines in middle school age substance abuse are also noted

The number of people in Harford County who have overdosed and died after taking heroin has increased from last year, but it is not all doom and gloom, as county officials believe some of their drug prevention and education efforts are starting to take hold among younger middle school age children.Data presented during the first of a series of community forums Wednesday night show a decline in the number sixth and seventh graders who report using drugs and alcohol, but a significant amount of work remains to stop the county's deadly heroin scourge, Joe Ryan, manager of the county's Office of Drug Control Policy, said.Other data show Harford high school students continue to use prescription drugs – considered a gateway to heroin abuse, smoke marijuana and use heroin.Ryan led Wednesday's Heroin Prevention & Awareness Briefing held at Edgewood High School, which was attended by about 85 people, including many parents and their children.&quot;We have to save lives,&quot; he said. &quot;We have to cut the deaths from drugs and alcohol that are taking place in our communities.&quot;As of Wednesday, local law enforcement agencies have handled 204 heroin-related overdose calls this year, 33 of them fatal, Capt. Lee Dunbar, commander of the Harford County Task Force, told the audience.John Wanner, a retired counselor from the Father Martin's Ashley treatment center in Havre de Grace talks about addiction and the brain during Wednesday night's Heroin Prevention and Awareness Briefing at Edgewood High School.There were 202 overdoses, including 28 fatal incidents, during all of 2015, according to Dunbar, who said the number of deaths is increasing this year because dealers are cutting heroin with the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.Ryan said there are downward trends in many categories regarding the numbers of young people in Harford who have tried alcohol, marijuana and heroin, based on data from the 2015 Maryland Youth Risk Behavior Survey.There have been decreases, from 2013 to 2015, in the number of sixth and seventh graders who have used marijuana at least once during the past 30 days, the number of ninth graders who smoke marijuana on a regular basis, the number of middle schoolers who drank alcohol in the past month, the number of middle schoolers who have tried heroin, and the number of 10th graders who have used heroin.But, there also have been increases in the number of high school students who report using prescription drugs, which many addicts have used before turning to the cheaper and more plentiful heroin, as well as increases in the number of eighth, 10th, 11th and 12th graders who use marijuana, and the number of high school seniors who have used heroin, according to data presented by Ryan.&quot;We see that increase in our 12th graders, and that is alarming,&quot; Ryan said.More than 20 percent of the seniors surveyed in 2015 reported abusing prescription pills, and 4.6 percent reported using heroin, according to the data.John Wanner, the program's keynote speaker, talked at length about the differences between the brains of adults and teenagers, and the much greater risk of addiction for young people who use drugs and alcohol as their brains are still developing.&quot;It could be anybody's child, and those of you who are young people, it could be any one of you,&quot; he told the audience.Wanner, a resident of Havre de Grace, was a counselor at the Father Martin's Ashley treatment center in Havre de Grace for 13 years, until he retired about two-and-a-half years ago. He still teaches, speaks and does consulting work regarding addiction. He also will speak at the next two Harford community briefings.Wanner, 68, a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for nearly 32 years, said addiction &quot;creates powerful memories that don't necessarily diminish over your life.&quot;The greatest amount of brain development happens between the ages of 12 and 20, and the experiences that happen during that time shape a teen's adult worldview, he said.The frontal lobe, the part of the brain that controls a person's judgment does not fully develop for women until age 22 and age 25 for men, he said.Drugs and alcohol trigger the reward centers in a teenager's brain, and &quot;the reward that you get is a lot greater than the reward you're going to get as an adult,&quot; Wanner said.He stressed that alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, even &quot;vaping&quot; with electronic cigarettes, can be gateways to harder drugs, especially when teenagers use them.&quot;That nicotine is giving them that first buzz and that first taste of what it is to have an altered brain,&quot; Wanner said.Those situations can be averted if parents talk with their children about risky behaviors on a regular basis and how they can avoid peer pressure.&quot;The fear of losing the trust of a parent is a really big motivator for young people,&quot; he said.Harford County Public Schools system does its part by teaching students, from kindergarten through 12th grade, about how to develop trusting relationships with adults, make good decisions, blunt peer pressure and the dangers of substance abuse, according to Ginny Popiolek, supervisor of health and physical education, who also spoke.&quot;We start talking, at a very young age, about who is a trusted adult,&quot; Popiolek said.Jerry and Sue Schafer, of Abingdon, brought their 13-year-old son, Andrew, to Wednesday's forum after seeing and hearing stories in the media about prescription drug abuse.&quot;That's what concerned me, so that's why we brought our son up here, to see it and hear it for himself,&quot; Jerry Schafer said.Andrew, an eighth grader at Edgewood Middle School, said he was surprised to learn about the differences between adult brains and teenage brains, the parts of the brain and how drugs and alcohol affect them.&quot;Drugs are really bad, and I shouldn't do them,&quot; he said.The next heroin awareness forums will be Oct. 13 at C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air and Oct. 24 at North Harford High School in Pylesville. Both start at 6:30 p.m.

Harford heroin deaths increase, but declines in middle school age substance abuse are also noted

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