DRUG USE AFFECTS 1 IN 4 BREVARD TEENS

One out of four Brevard County high school students ingested some sort of
illegal drug in the past 30 days - everything from marijuana to crack to
heroin.

That's higher than the statewide average of one in five.

Local use of harder drugs such as crack cocaine, methamphetamines,
hallucinogens and heroin is double the state average, if not more.

Those figures, taken from the Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey 2000,
has grabbed the attention of local political and business leaders plotting
a strategy to make Brevard a better place to live.

"We're checking the pulse of the community, and this is where the blood
pressure has gone up a little bit," County Commission Chairwoman Sue
Carlson said. "There is harder drug use, higher propensity to alcohol and
cigarette use. It's embedded in our community. We have to figure out what
we can do about it."

Carlson co-chairs the steering committee of Brevard Tomorrow, a group of 24
political, business and civic leaders engaged in a six-month project to
come up with a strategic plan for the community's future.

The first part of that process has been to assess the county's profile,
warts and all. One of the biggest discoveries was the high rate of drug use
among Brevard's teens, especially the harder drugs like Ecstasy,
methamphetamines, crack cocaine and heroin.

"It's really bad news," Carlson said. "We have to get to the bottom of it,
figure out if any other issues are out there that lead the youth to go to
drugs, but we don't know . . . It may indicate the presence of additional
social problems we have yet to define."

Otherwise, Brevard's future will be bleak, said Anselmo Baldonado,
publisher of Brevard's Spanish-language newspaper, El Playero, and a member
of the Brevard Tomorrow Steering Committee.

"Companies won't want to relocate here because it doesn't fare well for the
future," Baldonado said. "There is not much future here if these are the
kids for the workforce."

The Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey 2000 surveyed 62,146 youth
statewide, including 1,141 in Brevard County. In almost every category,
Brevard's youth used more drugs than their counterparts around the state:

Hallucinogen use was 9.9 percent in Brevard compared with 6 percent statewide.

Methamphetamine use was 5.5 percent locally compared with 3 percent statewide.

Cocaine use was 6 percent compared with 4 percent.

Crack use was 3.1 percent compared with 1.9 percent.

Heroin was 2.6 percent compared with 1.7 percent.

The same report showed that use of hard drugs in the last 30 days was
double the state average.

While the statewide analysis shows the problem and even identifies some of
the risk, it doesn't really explain the cause, said Connie Dow of PREVENT!
of Brevard in Melbourne. Dow runs a three-year demonstration grant at two
local schools called Project Alert, aimed at teaching kids about the
dangers of drugs.

"In Brevard, our kids are experimenting at very early ages," said Dow, who
believes there is a combination of factors attributing to the heavy drug
use. "Our kids start younger to experiment with cigarettes and alcohol.
They have a more favorable attitude toward drug use, as well as parental
attitudes. They're not getting a strong anti-drug message from the parents."

The state survey identifies low neighborhood attachment, a high level of
transience, academic failure, low school commitment and friends' delinquent
behavior as contributing to the risk of taking drugs. But Brevard's risk
factors are no worse than similar communities or the statewide average.

"It explains a risk, but not why we have more kids taking those risks," Dow
said. "We are just learning for the first time that we seem to have more
kids affected by certain risk factors. Figuring out why is the next step."

Dow said the community needs to reach kids with strong antidrug messages,
make them understand the dangers and educate the parents.

There is no teen-ager smoking pot or taking harder drugs who didn't first
try cigarettes and alcohol, Dow said. The survey shows half of Brevard's
high school kids had a drink in the past 30 days and a quarter puffed a
cigarette.

"The gateway theory is proving correct," Dow said. "If we can catch them,
delay experimentation, they're not as likely to get involved in the harder
substances."

Harold Koenig, who spent years dragging his daughter out of crack houses,
and buying her back from people she sold her body to in order to pay for
her habit, said the high drug abuse numbers mean a huge local supply of drugs.

"Substance abuse in Brevard suggests it's the drug capital of Florida,"
said Koenig, the founder and president of HEART, Help Early Addicts Receive
Treatment.

It's a matter of geography, he said. Brevard has more than 70 miles of
coastline, two rivers, side harbors and canals that make it easier for drug
runners to come in by water.

Second, he said, Interstate 95 makes it easy for Brevard addicts to pick up
a carload of drugs and drive the stash north or south.

Third, he said, an active port means underpaid crew members selling drugs
on the side once they hit Cape Canaveral.

Without effective treatment programs, Brevard is in for a harsh future of
rising numbers of foster children, escalating hospital costs for crack
babies, and an epidemic of hepatitis C among young people.

"It's going to be devastating," Koenig predicted.

The solution is simple, he said. Reduce demand. Eliminate the customer from
the drug trafficker. Put kids into effective treatment programs.

Transience and lack of interest in education feed on each other, create a
cycle that feeds on itself, Carlson said.

The use of harder drugs like heroin and crack was particularly alarming to
Carlson.

"It cuts at the very fiber of our community," Carlson said. "With that
percentage of youth on drugs, our war on drugs is going to be very limited.
Young people on drugs create older people on drugs. We have successful
programs in this county. Why do we stick out so much? I don't have the
answer, all I know is it's going to eat at the fiber of our community in an
age range we can least afford to lose."