WHY AREN'T PARENTS DOING SOMETHING?

Authorities say the signs of drug use are there, but you have to look for them

Courtney Pero grew up with no illusions of privacy. He knew that
anything in his bedroom was subject to search.

These days, as a narcotics detective for the Plano Police Department,
he meets with parents of children he suspects are using drugs. His
message: Police your kids so I don't have to.

Frequently, parents have no idea their children are using, despite the clues.

Several empty Jim Beam bottles served as trophies in one 16-year-old's room.

"I didn't think that he was using the hard stuff," his mother told
Detective Pero, who said police suspected the teenager was using heroin.

Police and school and drug counselors said they frequently encounter
parents who are too busy to get involved in their children's lives.
They are often in denial about what they see or are too liberal about
what they allow.

When the Collin County Substance Abuse Coalition held a forum on drug
abuse prevention in April at an expansive University of Texas at
Dallas gymnasium, just three parents showed up.

The turnout could be only partially blamed on poor publicity, said
Sabina Stern, Collin County substance abuse coordinator.

"Obviously there is no perception right now of a major drug problem
among young people," she said.

That's a bad assumption, said Ms. Stern, who, with her colleagues, is
seeing an increase in cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine use among
teenagers. She said prescription drug abuse is also rampant, along
with marijuana and alcohol use.

Plano's heroin deaths in the mid-1990s were a wake-up call to
parents, who read teenagers' obituaries that blamed drug overdoses
and who flocked to a community forum that drew 1,500 people.

Attracting that same attention now is difficult, Ms. Stern said.
"We've always said it takes something terrible."

Parents are not concerned enough about alcohol and marijuana use, she
said. The marijuana some parents used as youths was not nearly as
strong as the drug that students use today.

"I don't want to blame parents. We're all really busy. But I think we
spend less time with our kids than we used to," Ms. Stern said.

Riley, whose last name is not being used because he is a minor, told
parents at an education forum that he was drinking alcohol at 12,
before switching to marijuana. By 14, he was using prescription drugs
and "ecstasy." He said he and his parents were in denial about his
drug problems.

"I'd tell them, 'No, I don't do marijuana.' When I've been shooting
up heroin," he said.

Riley, a student at Serenity High School in McKinney, said parents
should change their routines. Teenagers know what time their parents
get home from work. If parents give drug tests each Friday morning,
teenagers will adjust their use to pass the tests.

Cellphones, instant messaging and the Internet give youths easier
access to one another and to the outside world. While parents
perceive they can keep better track of their teenagers because of
cellphones, the devices allow teenagers to easily lie about where
they are, Ms. Stern said.

But technology also gives parents an advantage, Detective Pero said.
On a recent visit to a family's home about their teenager's suspected
drug abuse, he found evidence on the boy's phone.

Someone had sent him a text message asking for heroin: "Can you hook
me up some brown?"

"It was going on right under [the parents'] noses," Detective Pero said.

He urges parents to follow the technological trail teenagers leave.

Plano Sgt. Terence Holway said teenagers' drug problems are almost
always worse than what they will own up to. Parents should not slip
into denial or complacency.

"If they don't deal with it, sooner or later we're going to deal with
it," he said.

Staff writer Tiara M. Ellis contributed to this report.