'Cheese' Cases Rise in Dallas
Use of the heroin-based drug mix "cheese" appears to be on the rise among Dallas students, with arrests and requests for treatment from users both increasing.
A blend of black-tar heroin and Tylenol PM, cheese has been a local drug problem in the Dallas area since at least 2005. However, Dallas Independent School District police say that arrests for possession or dealing the drug have risen 82 percent during the current school year, and area addiction treatment programs are seeing more users coming in requesting help.
Police said arrests have increased as intelligence has improved, but officials worry that use of the drug mix could spread. "While arrests for possession at this time have been concentrated in the northwest Dallas corridor ... it is perceived that its usage will spread rapidly across the district and surrounding districts," according to a school district memo.
So far, however, the drug has not been detected in other major Texas cities like Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. Most users are male Hispanics in their mid-teens.
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Few Addicted Prisoners Get Treatment, Study Says
Less than 10 percent of inmates who need addiction treatment get services, according to a new study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The National Criminal Justice Treatment Practices Survey (NCJPS) found that "far too few programs and services exist, and the ones that do exist are only offered to a handful of offenders," said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow. "Since offenders are four times as likely as the general population to have a substance abuse disorder, treating the offender population could measurably lower the demand for drugs in our society, and reduce the crime rate."
"This survey can be used to assist policy makers and program officials in plotting a course to implement more effective services and delivery systems for the offender population," added study director Faye Taxman of Virginia Commonwealth University.
NIDA's report represented the first findings from the NCJPS study, which is gathering data on treatment available across the broad spectrum of correctional settings, from jails and prisons to community corrections agencies.
The study was published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.¤
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