Original Article Parents get alerts on heroin use By Irene Hsiao, Tribune Sheriff s deputies and posse members knocked on about 200 doors Saturday, mostly in Scottsdale and Phoenix, to warn parents their children might be using heroin and other drugs. The Maricopa County Sheriffs Office plans to continue today to contact the rest of the 581 households where telephones registered to the address were used to contact drug dealers. The homes also include Mesa, Queen Creek, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert and the West Valley. The deputies visits stemmed from an eightmonth investigation that yielded arrests of 11 illegal Mexican immigrants accused of selling heroin to high school-aged children. Eight teens whose names were not released face drug possession charges. Detectives also will contact 146 parents whose children were identified by informants as drug users. On Saturday, they distributed pamphlets on the investigation and pictures of heroin, psychedelic mushrooms, steroids, methamphetamine, cocaine, crystal methamphetamine and marijuana. The pamphlets give 11 warning signs and list nine treatment centers. Sheriffs officials refused to identify parents they visited. Sheriff Joe Arpaio said all of the responses Saturday were positive, and he has another idea to fight drug abuse in schools. "I have a possible solution thats a little controversial," he said. "We should have random drug tests for every school except for one caveat. The caveat is that no expulsion or suspension of the kid if he tests positive." He said that will relieve some of the concerns of the parents that their children would get kicked out of school. Eleanor Eisenberg, director of the Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said only athletes and students in extracurricular activities can be subject to drug testing because those activities are voluntary. "Even if they think there is a drug problem in the school, they cannot search everybody," she said. "If they move to drug testing willy-nilly without probable cause, without suspicion and impose it on 99 percent of the students who are not using drugs, I think that is a problem." Detective Marty Overton, who was part of the mass fleet of unmarked vehicles driving to various neighborhoods, said a Scottsdale woman now realizes her son has a drug problem after he was arrested for marijuana possession two weeks ago. "The brochure, the information, now she understands that her son has a problem," Overton said. Another woman in north Phoenix told Overton that she expected the visit from sheriffs officials after seeing what had been released to the media. She told him, " I thought you guys would be here, " Overton said. A high school-aged boy trying to get off heroin introduced detective John Graham to the drug ring in the summer of 2004. Graham started buying from dealers and discovered that some of the teenagers thought the drug was not as bad because they werent injecting it. "Most of them were snorting it and smoking it in their cars," Graham said. Graham said they would meet dealers in parking lots, where they kept balloons of heroin in their mouths. "When we saw kids this young, it was mind-boggling," said Graham. "Some were as young as 13 or 14 and that was just crazy." Contact Irene Hsiao by email, or phone ()