'Disturbing' Teen Drug Charges Highlight Broader Problem

A Wyckoff teenager grabbed headlines last week when police revealed that they had charged him with possession of over 300 “high power” painkillers after an apparent drug deal, and according to state and local authorities, the case may be representative of larger issues.

The 16-year-old, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was arrested after a patrolling officer watching from afar observed him make a hand-to-hand exchange with another youth on the field of Sicomac Elementary School the evening of July 21. After approaching the teenager, the officer allegedly found about $10,000 in Oxycodone in the boy’s possession. 

He now faces drug distribution charges, according to police.

“It’s quite disturbing,” Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox recently said of the charges. “That’s a lot of pills worth a lot of money. Obviously the concerns are who’s supplying them, and where they are going.”

That has been the concern of county and state officials as well, who have seen narcotics abuse rise to "epidemic" levels in recent years.

The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office earlier this year arrested about 120 alleged heroin buyers and dealers in a four-month probe, responding to a reported uptick in overdose deaths in 2012. A list of names released by the office revealed users in upscale suburbs, demonstrating, as Prosecutor John Molinelli said, that no community is “immune to what is happening.”

What is happening, according to a report published last month by a state commission that tackled the issue of narcotics use in New Jersey, is a migration in recent years of opiate use from relatively isolated urban subcultures further into the mainstream.

Driving this trend, the report says, is prescription painkillers, often more accessible to young suburban teenagers than illegal drugs, but just as dangerous and addictive. The commission found that rehab visits for opiate addiction tripled from 2006-2011, with half of those admitted under the age of 25.

Use of the pills carries the potential to spiral into abuse heroin abuse, the commission found. The two drugs carry the same effects, according to its findings, but a dose of heroin can be as cheap as $5, while addicts can pay as much as $80 for a similar effect from drugs like Oxycodone.

Fox said that the age of the alleged offender in the Wyckoff case causes a particular concern for police. An adult found with a similar amount of narcotics, he said, could be "passing through" or working in an expansive geographical area; a teenager has firm local roots.

“One would draw conclusions that with a 16-year old boy who’s a resident in town, other people locally are involved,” Fox said.

The law, he added, gives a wide latitude to the courts in dealing with juvenile offenders, and though it is technically possible for the teen to face incarceration if convicted, Fox believes it is “not likely.”

"We work with adolescents, and we understand that they make choices and sometimes they're not the best ones," Wyckoff Schools Superintendent Richard Kuder said. "Kids do know what's right and what's wrong."

He said that in the last two years, the Wyckoff school district has added a successful "Advisors Program," consisting of small group meetings between students and teachers aimed at developing decision making skills and curbing substance abuse.

Some warning signs that the police chief advised parents to be aware of are radical changes in behavior or new, unknown friends. Many prescription drugs also cause noticeable skin conditions, and the use can be detected in a child’s physical appearance. Another red flag, he said, is unexplained gains or losses money, which could indicate the buying or selling of drugs.

In the schools, Kuder said that the effort remains to address underlying mental health issues that will impact the decisions middle schoolers make when they leave the K-8 system.

"We look at a culture where kids and adults unfortunately self-medicate to escape stress," Kuder said. "What we're called to do as a community is address how we get to that situation."