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Deadly $2 Cheese Heroin
8/10/2007
The potentially lethal heroin-Tylenol PM combination known as "cheese" is now showing up among some fourth graders, according to Texas law enforcement officials and drug treatment therapists who say the problem has "exploded" in the last few months. "We've had 71 arrests for cheese over the past few months of children between the ages of 10 and 16," said Detective Monty Moncibais of the Dallas Police Narcotics Division. One hit of cheese can cost as little as $2, a price that any young child can afford, according to Moncibais. "Any child anywhere can afford a hit of cheese. It's just horrific."
Dallas law enforcement officials say the use of the drug in recent months has spread from Dallas to communities in outlying counties. The age of users has dropped to as young as nine-years-old, according to Moncibais, the average age of fourth graders. Drug treatment counselors say an alarming number of their patients are children. "We continue on a daily basis to get referrals for cheese," said Michelle Hemm, Director of the Dallas Phoenix House, a drug treatment facility for adolescents.
When ABC News first contacted DEA headquarters about cheese last May, a spokesperson referred to the issue as a "non-story." Other officials said they were concerned that publicity of the new drug would increase use among young people. DEA officials now concede, however, that cheese is a growing problem in Dallas. They say they are working with schools and drug treatment centers to raise awareness about the drug.
The heroin reaches the children from a path that starts in Mexico and ends up in their school yards. Authorities say traffickers first sell the heroin to high school and middle school students in Dallas, who mix it up with Tylenol PM into cheese, according to the Dallas Independent School District Police Department. The middle school students give or sell it to the
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