By Tawnell D. Hobbs and Sergio Chapa
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — A highly addictive heroin mix that swept through several Dallas schools last year appears to be losing its grip on students — at least while they’re on campus.
Dallas Independent School District police are reporting a sharp drop in arrests related to “cheese” heroin. Just 15 students were arrested this school year through November, down from 71 during the same period last year.
But the demand for treatment for kids hooked on the deadly mix of black tar heroin and crushed nighttime cold tablets hasn’t decreased much. And users are cropping up beyond the northwest Dallas area, where the drug had previously been concentrated.
“It’s slowly spreading through the different age groups and parts of the city,” said Deputy Chief Julian Bernal, commander of the Dallas police narcotics division. “We were seeing some pretty big spikes, but they’ve leveled off.”
For example, figures from the Dallas Police Department show that 264 adults were arrested on heroin charges through Dec. 14 of this year, about the same number arrested during that period last year.
Hispanic youths still account for the majority of cheese users, but Chief Bernal said his officers are catching more white and black kids with the drug.
Area law enforcement and health officials had feared that the addictiveness of cheese and its cheap price, about $2 a hit, would aid its spread.
Cheese is also showing up outside Dallas County.
A September 2007 report for the Dallas County Cheese/Heroin Task Force notes that of 25 visits to North Texas emergency rooms because of cheese from January 2006 to August 2007, about eight were by people living outside Dallas County.
“I think the message is, ‘Parents need to be very concerned no matter where they are,’ ” said Jane Maxwell, a University of Texas at Austin research scientist who studies substance abuse trends in Texas. “Kids experiment.”
The drug, which got its name because it resembles ground parmesan cheese, is suspected in the fatal overdoses of at least 24 teens who were 18 or younger in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since 2005.
DISD Police Deputy Chief Gary Hodges attributes the drop in cheese arrests on campuses to a public information blitz last school year that involved educating parents, students and teachers about the dangers of cheese and how to detect users.
The district also created a hotline for tips. Chief Hodges said fewer callers are reporting drug dealers, but more cheese addicts are calling to find help for themselves or others.
The district also increased its use of drug dogs, and worked with other agencies, including Dallas narcotics officers and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas office, to combat the drug. Students’ fears also were heightened after watching classmates get busted, Chief Hodges said. He added that frequent media reports and television public service announcements also highlighted the dangers of using cheese.
“I hope that when the students saw the reports of overdose deaths, that it made an impression and convinced them not to use it,” Chief Hodges said.
DISD officials say they aren’t letting up on their prevention efforts. The measures were mostly put into effect last school year after cheese use took off in five Northwest Dallas schools, prompting an outcry from Hispanic parents who wanted the district and local law enforcement to respond more aggressively. The average student user then was 14; 80 percent were male; and 98 percent were Hispanic.
Law enforcement officials have nabbed some heroin dealers recently. Over the past eight months, Dallas police and Drug Enforcement Administration agents have taken dozens of pounds of black tar heroin off the streets through the arrests of several Mexican drug traffickers.
Federal officials announced this week that four North Dallas men who were charged in a heroin distribution conspiracy had pleaded guilty in federal court. U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper, of the Northern District of Texas, in a news release praised the investigative efforts of the Coppell, Dallas and Farmers Branch police departments, the Dallas Independent School District Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division and the DEA for their work in the case.
The big drop in cheese-related arrests hasn’t led to a corresponding drop in requests for help from area rehab centers.
Phoenix Academy of Dallas is the area’s largest provider of residential treatment services for youths hooked on drugs. Michelle Hemm, program director of the 32-bed private facility, said she’s noticed an increase in requests for treatment for cheese.
About a quarter of 200 calls to Ms. Hemm’s office from September to November were for cheese heroin. The biggest group was children from northwest Dallas. But others came from Addison, Carrollton, Grand Prairie, Irving, Valley Ranch, Richardson, Pleasant Grove and Oak Cliff.
Ms. Hemm surmised that DISD’s cheese-related arrests may have dropped because kids are better at concealing the drug or are scared to bring it into schools, fearing detection by a drug dog.
Whatever is happening, Ms. Hemm is happy that arrests are down.
“Kids definitely have gotten the message that school is not the free-for-all that it was,” she said.
Several other facilities that treat youths reported that requests for cheese treatment have remained steady or decreased slightly.
“I think there’s been a little bit of decline, but it hasn’t gone away, I can assure you of that,” said Craig Nuckles, CEO of Timberlawn Mental Health System in Dallas, where kids with severe drug addiction go through detox. “We continue to see cheese going on.”
Fernando Cortez Sr., an Oak Cliff man who lost his 15-year-old son, Fernando Cortez Jr., to the deadly drug, said he is encouraged by the declining arrest numbers in DISD, but he remains cautious.
“Things have been quiet,” said Mr. Cortez, now an anti-cheese activist. “Maybe that’s a good sign. Maybe all those kids have woken up.”
Mr. Cortez said recently that he and his mother still feel the loss of his namesake as they await the Feb. 25 trial for Deleon Vanegas Jr., a 20-year-old man accused of giving Fernando Jr. his first — and last — sample of cheese.
“I hope that any kid that’s caught up in it will do the right thing and seek treatment,” Mr. Cortez said. “I hope that they open their eyes that this is not something to play with. It’s Russian roulette. You can die even on the first time.”
Copyright 2007 The Dallas Morning News