Drug Test: Parents inspect mock teen bedroom for signs of drug use

[Perception Addict]

Another ridiculous PA situation:

Drug Test: Parents inspect mock teen bedroom for signs of drug use

They got the beer bong, the aerosol air freshener, the angry snowman T-shirt and the pacifiers.

But when Clarence Watson held up the tube of lipstick parents had missed while searching a teen’s bedroom for signs of drug use, their reaction made it obvious they hadn’t gotten that.

“This is actually a marijuana pipe,” said Watson, demonstrating how the tube could transition from cosmetic aid to illicit paraphernalia.

An audible “Oh dang” emanated from the audience, followed soon by an “Oh man” as Watson deftly revealed a similar pipe inside a fluorescent yellow highlighter.

“Our goal today is, number one, to make you aware of what is happening in the drug environment today,” said Watson, who with Emmy Sasala works for the Susan P. Byrnes Health Education Center in York.

For example, he said, many parents might not be aware that marijuana today can be up to 10 times as potent as it was when they were young.

Speaking to an audience of about 15 people in Carlisle High School’s McGowan Auditorium Monday night, the two told parents that not all drug users fit the inner-city stereotype.

“About 49 percent of high school kids in the city try drugs,” Watson said. “About 49 percent of suburban kids also have tried drugs. We cannot pigeonhole them.”

But before they started talking about heroin and crack cocaine, the two stressed that parents should not take lightly the possibility that their children could be doing “gateway drugs” -- tobacco, alcohol, inhalants.

“They are just as dangerous as some of the other drugs,” Sasala said.

She noted that tobacco is the number one preventable cause of death -- more than all other drugs combined. It’s less noticeable, she said, because it’s more socially acceptable and more slowly debilitating, but the statistics also offer parents hope.

“If you can get them through high school without smoking, chances are that they’re not going to start,” she said.

Inhalants should also be of particular concern to parents, Sasala said, because although parents tend to see it as the equivalent of trying a cigarette, the immediate danger quotient of what young thrill-seekers may call “air blast, bagging, buzz bomb, gluey, hippie crack, moon gas, oz, snappers and quicksilver” is actually much higher. A large percentage of people die after trying inhalants just once, she says, and the typical age for first users is 10 to 13.

Gesturing toward the mock bedroom where participants had identified about 30 of the 70 drug indicators present, Watson said, “We order this stuff off the Internet.” Many online pharmacies don’t require prescriptions or other forms of verification, he said, and when the packages arrive in the mail, they don’t look like drugs.

Someone in the audience raised a hand and asked, “Who are these people? Why are they selling these things?”

“This is for tobacco,” said Watson, assuming a mock innocent expression. “I can’t believe they’re using it for drugs.”

They talked about raves, about “pharming” parties featuring prescription pills, about combinations of Viagra and ecstasy that often add unprotected sex to the dangers of drug use.

“How much does this cost?” someone asked, and Watson said dealers keep prices low so they can sell more. “Five dollars a pill, ten dollars a pill,” he said. Even hits of crack cocaine can be obtained for as little as $5, Watson added.

In addition to educating themselves, Watson and Sasala said, the most important thing parents can do is to establish and maintain good relationships with their children.

Afterward, as attendees clustered around the mock bedroom again, Sasala said that even though they would have liked to see a larger audience, they consider their work worthwhile if it helps even one child.

“You never know what’s going to happen,” said assistant high school principal Paul Wysocki, “especially when you play between the holidays.” The event was sponsored by the Carlisle Health and Wellness Foundation in cooperation with Carlisle Area School District.

Bruce Clash, who has one child in middle school and two in elementary school, said he and his wife decided to come even though they have no reason to think their children are considering trying drugs.

“I don’t think it’s ever too early,” he said.

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2...ws/news200.txt