Finn says he has conversations with kids who are high almost every day. The only local heroin treatment center is a methadone clinic run by the Central Community Health Board, part of the Hamilton County Mental Health Board. But access isn't easy, Finn says. Before a kid can get into the program, he has to do a 30-day detox program. Most kids want the methadone first.
Most kids laugh at the idea.
Charlie Brown, far right, panhandles on Short Vine in Corryville. Of course, there's also a fee involved, and most of the street kids don't have the money for treatment. In the past two and a half years, Finn says he's seen an increase in the use of heroin among street youth. Heroin puts kids at risk for HIV and hepatitis because of needle sharing. Law has the perverse effect of encouraging needle sharing, because anyone caught with a needle faces a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia.