CITY GROUP HOPES TO PREVENT DRUG USE

NORWICH-- Patrick McCormack listed off the well-known victims of drug
abuse: Jim Morrison, James Belushi, Len Bias, Kurt Cobain and Chris Farley.

Then, with hardly a pause, the director of the Uncas Health District
added, "And I'll throw in my cousin, Billy, 2005."

ADVERTISEMENT McCormack used the story about his cousin, a successful
Ivy League graduate and businessman, to underscore the importance of
a new group: The Norwich Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition.

"This is one topic we can address right away and try to prevent as
many people as possible from falling into it," he said to an audience
of 30 people at a breakfast Thursday at Comfort Inn and Suites.

The coalition is recruiting more members to join a campaign to reduce
substance abuse among youth, and, over time, adults.

Ledge Light Health District in Groton received a two-year federal
grant of $75,000 to oversee programs in Norwich and Waterford.

Speaker Geralyn Laut, community coordinator for the Connecticut
Coalition to Stop Underage Drinking, said she got involved in similar
programs after bringing her two young children to an elementary
school in Glastonbury 13 years ago only to find 30 alcohol and liquor bottles.

She wrote a letter to the editor as her way of fighting back. Town
police thanked her. Laut said she is particularly disturbed even
police know about certain party spots in town.

"It continues to happen because people aren't willing to bite the
bullet," Laut said.

Laut helped start a coffee house for young people in her hometown of
Glastonbury when her two children were still young.

She recalled the times when she would mop the floor at 12:30 a.m.,
knowing her own house needed cleaning, and watching Japanese animated
films with teenagers. She did it hoping one day other parents would
take the same interest in her children.

The coffee house grew to the point some events attracted as many as
500 young people. But that's just one town. She remains concerned
about the rest of the state.

"The bottom line is, in Connecticut, more kids drink under the age of
21 than most states in the nation," she said.

State Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, commended Laut's story as a
testimony of the difference one person can make.

Prague said she would again introduce a bill to make it illegal for
anyone age 21 and younger to possess alcohol on private property, as
promoted earlier by Laut. Forty-nine towns in Connecticut already
have such a law, Laut said. Groton is the only Eastern Connecticut
town to have the law, Laut said.

Speaker Michelle Hamilton, the Drug Free Community coordinator for
the Groton Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, said
recent surveys in Norwich show substance abuse is declining.

But she reminded the audience, including a handful of students from
Norwich Free Academy, of the consequences of drug abuse -- sexual
assaults, homicide, drunken driving, child abuse and teen suicide,
among others.

Hamilton said one of the top goals is to reduce the age children are
initiated to drugs.

R.J. Evans, a 15-year-old NFA student, was glad he attended the meeting.

"It's important because I know a lot of kids still do this," he said,
"and we need to find a way to stop it."