TEENS RATE MARIJUANA AS NO. 1 DRUG CHOICE

FORT WORTH - Throughout elementary and middle school Justin Wilton was an
A-student and the "perfect child." However, age 15 hit and boredom soon
followed. Wilton wanted something new for his sophomore year. A friend
introduced him to drugs.

He started with marijuana. Within a month he was being introduced to other
drugs. Over the next year, Wilton progressed to alcohol and then ultimately
to cocaine.

A judge eventually sentenced Wilton to probation and ordered him to attend
the Tarrant Youth Recovery Campus - an addiction program of Tarrant County
Challenge.

Wilton, now 17, has been drug-free for more than a year now. Yet, his
pattern of drug abuse mirrors that of many Tarrant County teens.

Wednesday, he joined members of Tarrant County Challenge when they released
the 2001 Drug Impact Index.

Marijuana remains the primary drug of choice for teens, the study found.
Ninth grade and age 14 remains a crucial time for youth, officials said.

It's essential that more than the school system be involved in drug
prevention, said the Rev. LeAnn Griffin, supervisor for the group's
Substance Abuse Information Databank, who presented the index.

The information is designed to help law enforcement and prevention and
treatment agencies understand the county's youth drug problem. Griffin's
message is that fighting drugs is a community effort. Kids use drugs to
change the way they feel, she said. Parents and community members must
emphasize a child's unlimited potential, she said.

The index also includes data from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Juvenile arrests for alcohol and drug possession have decreased, the survey
reports. In 1999, 750 juveniles were arrested for breaking liquor laws,
compared with 684 the following year. Also, in 1999, 1,483 juveniles were
arrested for drug possession vs. 1,127 in 2000.

Ninth-graders in the Fort Worth, Lake Worth, White Settlement, Arlington
and Grapevine-Colleyville school districts were surveyed in spring 2000 for
this year's study.

The teens overwhelming reported that they used marijuana more than any
other drug in the past 30 days.

"I still hear parents say, 'Oh at least they're just smoking pot,' "
Griffin said. "It ain't your mama's pot. The [chemical] level has tripled.
It's a big deal. People don't start out as heroin addicts. They start out
with alcohol, tobacco and marijuana."

Ecstasy and other designer club pills were listed as new drugs making
noticeable climbs in teen usage circles and are a staple at many
nonalcoholic parties, Griffin said.

Parental knowledge of the dangers of inhalants must also increase, she
said. Often parents do not understand the scope of substances available,
Griffin said. Inhalants travel directly to a body's sensory system and
frontal lobe, thus affecting decision-making and reasoning skills.
Proactive prevention against inhalant abuse can be difficult, Griffin said.

"You'd never believe your child would sidle up to the air conditioner and
huff all the Freon out of it," she said.