VALLEY HAS NO PLACE FOR TEENS TO GO FOR TREATMENT

While the Coachella Valley boasts one of the country's most renowned adult
drug and alcohol treatment centers -- there is no place for teenagers to
get help.

No single residential treatment center exists for children under 18 in
Riverside or San Bernardino counties.

"There is a definite need," said Jim Rothblatt, student assistance program
specialist for Desert Sands Unified School District.

"We have enough young people to fill a place up, but we don't have the
financial backing to access service."

It's a concern for many in the valley who deal with adolescents.

"There is no place for someone's 16-year-old son who is smoking crack in
high school," said Rick Mesa, executive director for Ranch Recovery Centers
Inc., a drug and alcohol treatment facility in Palm Springs.

"It's an incredibly serious problem. What they are really saying is wait
until they get to be adults, arrested, and then we'll send them to an adult
program."

Rebecca Hyatt, the executive director at the Counseling Center in Palm
Springs, sees many children struggling with addiction.

"Teenagers who have a problem could care less what they put in their
bodies," she said. "A little of this, a little of that -- they go to school
loaded."

Some families take out loans to send their children to residential programs
like they would for college, she said.

"For people who don't have the money, it's a sad problem," she said.

Younger and younger: And it gets sadder when you find out how old some of
these children are, she said.

"Every once in a while, a 10-year-old will tell me he has been drinking for
a year and smoking pot," Hyatt said. "It's starting so young. Sixth-grade
kids already experiencing drugs --some kids by the time they're 13 have
tried 10 different kinds of drugs."

"Money is one of the stumbling blocks for getting kids residential
treatment," said Jim Powell, mental health services supervisor for
Riverside County.

"It's a challenging process to get an adolescent treatment facility up and
running," he said.

"Many people don't want it in their backyard. And it's not a cheap
proposition to run. Our budget is getting cut as we speak."

The county lacks money to maintain a treatment center. And it lacks money
to help families send their children to residential programs outside the
county, he said.

Maria Lozano, behavioral health supervisor for Riverside County Department
of Mental Health Substance Abuse Program, is also concerned about the lack
of residential programs.

"Funding continues to be a major issue," she said. "We're hoping somewhere
down the line we can secure a residential program."

The county program does offer outpatient programs and many of the clients
do well, she said.

"We're able to keep a child in the house and deal with the problem," she
said. "That's not to say that can't be done in a residential program but we
do the next best thing."

Kids who have money can be placed in private treatment centers in Orange
County or Los Angeles County. But the kids who don't have any money have to
wait until they are 18.

`Nightmare': "It's a parent's nightmare," said Jan Ryan, liaison for school
safety and risk reduction at the Riverside County Office of Education.

Ryan wants to get kids off drugs as quickly as possible. She has seen
first-hand the ripple effect a sober adolescent has on his or her peers.

"The kids in recovery come back to the high school and kids see you can
recover," she said. "I see a lot of hopelessness when kids worry about
other kids. When someone has a problem and they come back into the school
system and is positively changed -- that gives them hope."