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Highlighting News Stories for Our Town for the week of  April 12, 2004

Previous Newsbreak Archive

Newsbreak for Walpole

The Week – April 12

The Year – 2004

           Drug use and Teenagers

      The middle of April is a signal that Income taxes are due, the Boston Marathon will be run, and public schools are on vacation.

As youngsters avail themselves of the free time for recreation and work, parents and other adults may be apprehensive about the risk behavior of some youngsters.

A story this week describes a tragedy that occurred recently to two families in Charlestown.

Lat Friday night, a 17-year-old star athlete for Malden Catholic High School returned home and went to bed at an early hour. The next morning, his heart stopped, the EMT’s were called, and CPR was administered. However, he died shortly thereafter.

The boy’s girlfriend, a student at Matignon High School, was also suffering from similar symptoms of distress. She was rushed to a hospital and remains in critical condition.

The DA is investigating the death and the conditions under which the youngsters were found.

The allegations are that the youngsters were combining heroin and Oxycontin, a deadly combination.

This is a tragedy for the two families and the community in Charlestown.

But, it is also indicative of a larger problem. Some authorities suggest that there is a growing trend toward the combining of illegal substances with tragic outcomes.

The DPH estimates that fatal opiate overdoses among teenagers have tripled over the last few years.

Opiate-based hospitalizations have more than doubled from 1,174 to 2, 532 in Massachusetts.

These cases are mostly heroin and Oxycontin based.

Risk behavior among our youth can lead to tragedies.

We hope that we can be alert as a community to informing our youth of the dangers and the risks involved.