AUTHORITIES OFFER HELP FOR FAMILIES OF USERS

Solutions

MANSFIELD -- Teenagers need to know who their friends
are.

Karen Miller, a parent who works preventing young people from using
drugs, has heard of local parties with large numbers of teens driving
in from other areas.

Young people are at higher risk of coming into contact with drugs than
when she grew up, because of friendships made through e-mail or chat
rooms.

"When I was growing up, parties were basically just local kids from
local schools," and everyone knew each other, said Karen Miller,
Informed Teens/ Parenting coordinator for Community Action for Capable
Youth.

But teens today tend to put technology to heavy use -- creating
"networks" of friends they met on the Internet.

"Somebody has a party, kids from all over Richland County appear," she
said.

"You (parents) may not know all these kids -- they're a friend of a
friend of a friend. So parents really need to be aware who their kids
are talking to online," she said.

Those who work in drug prevention and drug treatment have advice for
parents.

That includes being aware drugs most certainly are out there and
available to kids; keeping an eye out for signs like sudden behavior
changes; and knowing where to go for help and information.

Watch for Early Signs

A large piece of the drug abuse puzzle is to emphasize prevention from
an early age, CACY officials said.

Children who become interested in smoking, from ages as early as
elementary school, are at greater risk of later using drugs, they said.

"We know for a fact that the longer you can prevent young people from
using alcohol or anything, the less likely they will be to become
addicted," CACY Director Karen Moody-Bierly said.

"A lot of people who get involved in drugs don't feel good about
themselves."

And numbing feelings through drugs or alcohol becomes the way some
kids choose to deal with the hurt, she said.

Talk to Your Children

Young people need to be made very aware of the cost of associating
with other kids who are using drugs -- even if they themselves don't
touch drugs, CACY officials said. "One of the things kids need to know
is, if you are at a party and drugs are found, what could happen to
you. ...You can be in just as much trouble (at a two-keg party) even
if you aren't drinking."

As a parent, Miller said she's concerned about the possibility that
kids who never intended to use drugs might get something slipped into
their drinks.

Monitor Their Activities

Children whose parents have problems with alcohol abuse or drug
addiction tend to start "running the streets unsupervised at night,"
Moody-Bierly said.

"There are elementary, middle school aged kids out running the streets
until 2 a.m. in the morning," she said.

Those kids may be abused by their parents, have no real discipline in
their lives, and have troubles at school -- including just staying
awake, she said.

If so, those childrens' futures may depend on someone else
intervening, treatment counselors said.

Keep Trying, Despite Setbacks

Young drug abusers -- particularly a teenager who already has been
using for six months or more -- may need to go through treatment
multiple times, before their habits truly change.

"People do not understand that it usually takes more than one time
going through treatment for a person to make changes," said Geron
Tate, director of the Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
Outreach Program.

"Here at UMADAOP, we have found out that when peoples' thoughts
change, the people will change. Therefore, we see people recovering
after eight or nine tries -- but you (counselors) have to stick with
them."

Some parents come in to CACY asking for drug-testing kits, in order to
monitor their child's activity -- after they ran out of insurance
coverage for treatment, used their own income to pay for additional
days, "and they're still having problems," Moody-Bierly said.

"Some of the kids that are using multiple drugs have been using for
awhile," she said.

"Trying to break an addiction may take a couple of times until you're
successful," Miller said.

Recovery Means Behavior Changes

People who are abusing alcohol or drugs have a tough time breaking the
cycle if they're living in the same environment, seeing the same
friends, Moody-Bierly said.

It may be necessary to remove a young person from bad influences by
putting them in an in-patient setting, she believes.

"Changing social circles" is an important part of the puzzle, Tate
said.

UMADAOP advises some of its adult clients to move away from the
Mansfield area, if they're continually coming back in contact with bad
influences.

"That's the most difficult thing for a person to do, is to change
friends -- the people you played ball with and have known all your
life," Tate said.

" 'He (the buddy) can drink a beer and go home. But I'll stay and
drink a 12-pack. ... He might smoke a joint and stay home, and I'll
smoke a joint and drive.' "

But some treatment counselors caution that moving to a new location
will not do the person any good, unless they actively seek out a
different environment than they were involved in before.

Use Twelve-Step Programs

Richland County is especially rich in 12-Step programs like Narcotics
Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous groups, drug and alcohol counselors
say.

"There is a meeting every day in the week that they can attend, in
Richland County. You go to meet some clean, sober people. You get a
sponsor who is clean and sober, and who will tell you the truth," Tate
said.

"The more meetings an individual attends, the more spiritual a person
becomes, the better the prognosis for that person to recover," Tate
said.

Twelve-Step meetings are low-cost. A basket may be passed around
seeking small donations to pay for coffee and rental expenses for the
room they are held in.

Alanon meetings also are available in the region, for people whose
loved ones are using.

Don't 'Help' By Cushioning Their Falls

Crossroads Center for Change Director Lynne Spencer would advise
families to resist the urge to step in and bail children out of
problems that inevitably surface after they begin using drugs.

"I know it's difficult to practice tough love.

"Don't call off work for them. Don't cover for them. Don't give them
money," she said.

Spencer says she doesn't even think it's very helpful to pay off "the
dope man," if a loved one owes a lot of money for drugs.

"Really, the best way to 'help' someone is to take that cushion away,
and let them experience the natural consequences of drug and alcohol
abuse," she said.