Naked Attack Lends New Import to Drug Forum

What do your kids know about drugs that you don't?

Quite a lot, says one local drug expert, who will take to the stage tonight to try to explain some of it to parents and educators.

David Fialko already had been scheduled to give a public presentation on drug education Thursday night in Fairless Hills. Now, he expects the crowd to be larger than it otherwise might have been.

That's because the reality of drug use hit home, and the headlines, for Bucks County in a major way this week.

A 2010 graduate of Central Bucks East High School was arrested in northern Pennsylvania after a bizarre rampage through the tiny town of Hawley.

Police there say , jumped out its second story window, then tackled a woman walking nearby, "gnawing on her head and screaming like an animal."

The sheer bizarreness of the incident has led people to speculate that the man was on drugs at the time. And Fialko, who has worked in drug prevention education for four years, thinks the substance in question was a synthetic drug known on the street as "bath salts."

Fialko's presentation usually addresses "bath salts," a synthetic drug similar to amphetamines or cocaine that also can cause temporary episodes of delirium. For tonight's talk, he said he plans to spend more time than usual on this drug trend.

"The presentation was originally targeted for parents but who knows who’s going to show up now," said Fialko, who works for the Doylestown-based Council of Southeast Pennsylvania.

"We’ve been dealing with marijuana and cocaine and regular drugs for decades. This is something completely new, and very few people have a grasp on it," Fialko said. "We have identified the problem with all the other drugs, and we know the solutions. We don’t have any known solutions for this new drug, and that’s very scary. The No. 1 solution, in my opinion, is to raise awareness."

The public is encouraged to attend tonight's talk. It starts at 7 p.m. at the Masonic Lodge in Fairless Hills, 525 South Olds Boulevard, Fairless Hills, PA.

Fialko travels all over the region, educating parents, teachers and anyone else who will listen about drug use. To invite him to speak to your group, contact him at (215) 230-8218, ext 3162, or dfialko@councilsepa.org.