By Bill Forry
Managing Editor

City officials are planning a panel discussion for next Thursday evening to confront what they say is a growing problem in the Neponset-Adams Corner neighborhoods: Substance abuse among young people. The meeting, set for Thursday, July 27 at 6 p.m. at the Murphy Community Center, comes after the deaths of two Neponset residents, ages 19 and 20 respectively, who died from drug overdoses in the last month, according to Lauryn Smith, a mayoral liasion to Dorchester.

"The Mayor's Office has worked with the Public Health Commission to put together this effort to reach out to the area due to an increase in drug activity in the Neponset/ Adams Corner area," said Smith. "Information will be provided including statistics, treatment, prevention, overdose, and the court system."

State and city public health officials, as well as police, will be on hand to discuss statistics that are specific to Adams Corner-Neponset, Smith said.

"We'll talk about what to do if you're in the presence of an overdose," Smith told the Reporter. "We want everybody to come to this meeting. You never know when you could be in that situation. You may see signs (that a friend is using drugs), but a lot of kids in the neighborhood today think they're invincible. They don't think its going to hit them."

"We want parents and children (to come). Especially teens who think that their friends are doing things. They should be coming because they may be able to help by talking to their friends."

Smith declined to give the identities of the two young people who died recently, but said both were thought to be related to substance abuse.

"In St. Ann's, there have been two drug overdoses in the last month. One may have been triggered by a drug interaction.

The other one was a strict overdose. We're talking heroin and OxyContin. One was fatal and the other person died after being in a coma.

"The victims were 19 and 20, but we're concerned that (the usage) has gone into the 16-17-18 year old range as well," Smith said.