Sam Spade's San Francisco

(Updated: January 2009) Cheese is the slang term for a dangerous new drug that first surfaced in 2005. It is being sold to elementary school children and to high school students. Almost all the cheese sold in this country is sold to children.

Cheese is formed by combining heroin with crushed tablets of certain over-the-counter common cold medication, such as Tylenol PM. The powder is snorted instead of being injected. One tenth of a gram, which is one "hit", costs $3 to $10. Just like any adulterated form of heroin, once a person is physically addicted, withdrawal symptoms may appear from 6 to 24 hours after the last dose of the drug.

The Dallas, Texas school district has been experiencing an epidemic among school children who are buying and using cheese. The district has been cracking down hard, but the problem they (and we) face is that the drug pushers scatter like cockroaches. They run in every direction and San Francisco is no exception.

Selling cheese to children is an easy sale and has become big business. The sale of cheese is a fast-growing problem throughout the country. Here in San Francisco we need to make certain, beyond doubt, that the San Francisco Unified School District is taking clearly-identifiable and practical steps to address this developing problem in our schools.

If you want to know more about street drugs and stay current with the world of street drugs, the U. S Drug Enforcement Administration publishes the Microgram Bulletin.

In San Francisco the people to contact about cheese are the members of the San Francisco Board of Education. Tell them you want to be kept informed about the district's efforts to address this issue. Ask them to keep you informed. It is your right to make that demand and it is their duty to respond. Although, please do not be confrontational. The current members of the San Francisco Board of Education are all compassionate, capable, intelligent community leaders who are contributing a lot to our community. They will be eager to help you.

The Board of Education is comprised of seven members, elected at large to serve 4-year terms.The Board determines policy for all public schools, kindergarten through 12th grade, in the San Francisco Unified School District, City and County of San Francisco.