POLICE: CHILDREN HIDE USE OF DRUGS

Parents Learn To Spot Hints

CHIPPEWA FALLS -- Children can be creative and innovative, but that's not
always a good thing. Just ask detective Mark Hanson.

Students have been sneaking alcohol into water or soda bottles at Chippewa
Falls' high school and middle school, said Hanson, of the Chippewa Falls
Police Department.

He's also seen many items used to smoke marijuana, everything from toilet
hardware to raw potatoes wrapped with electrical tape. Last week, Hanson
said, he confiscated two sockets used to connect cable wires to television
sets from two students at the high school; they were using the sockets to
smoke marijuana.

"There are kids who are daily getting stoned on open campus," Hanson said.

Dan Thein, a liaison officer at Memorial High School, said marijuana is
prevalent in the school.

"Students have admitted to me that they use marijuana," Thein said this
morning. "I think you're always going to have people that are going to use
it or experiment with it."

But many parents don't catch on to these problems right away, especially if
their kids are using everyday objects, said Tina Sturz, who works for the
Chippewa County Sheriff's Department as a drug investigator.

"You don't pay attention to this kind of stuff," she said.

Hanson and Sturz gave a presentation Monday evening at Central Lutheran
Church in Chippewa Falls to help educate the community about drugs. They
talked about how to spot a drug user and different ways people can hide
their habits.

The officers displayed a variety of drugs they have confiscated in the
Chippewa Falls area -- everything from beer to LSD.

Hanson offered some advice to parents: "You have to check, and you have to
know where (your children) are at all times."

Parents can watch for some of the classic warning signs, Hanson said. When
children start to use drugs, they may not act normal; they may stop caring
about grades, family, friends and personal hygiene, he said.

Raves are big contributors to drug problems, and they are becoming
increasingly popular outings for area teens.

Ecstasy, similar to methamphetamine, and nitrous oxide are two substances
frequently associated with raves, which are characterized by frantic
dancing and often are billed as alcohol-free events.

This is something Hanson didn't think much about until recently, when he
saw a television show that discussed Ecstasy.

"I thought 'Wow, I hope this stuff doesn't come here,' " he said. "Little
did I know, it already was."

Although the harder, newer drugs are rearing their heads in the area,
traditional illegal substances such as marijuana and alcohol, for those
under 21, continue to be some of the biggest offenders.

"(Alcohol) still causes more problems than any other drug," Hanson said.

Alcohol has been found more often in middle and high schools lately, Hanson
said. "It continues to be a problem, and it's not going away," he said.

Additionally, Hanson said five drug-related suspensions have been imposed
at the middle and high schools this year. Possessing marijuana in Chippewa
Falls brings a suspension.

Students at Memorial High School, on the other hand, can receive an
out-of-school suspension for possessing drugs and an expulsion for selling
them, Thein said.

Not much of the officers' discussion was surprising to Lorraine Smith, a
nurse who attended Monday's presentation, which was sponsored by the Family
Support Center.

"I mostly came to hear what's out there," Smith said. "I want to know more
about the rave scene."

As a nurse, Smith said she sees a lot of people withdrawing from drugs, and
she wanted to know more about it.

Hanson said Monday's crowd probably wouldn't have many problems with their
children using drugs because they were concerned enough to show up.

"I wish we could get to a lot of people," he said.

"Anyone who thinks drugs aren't a problem, you need a checkup from the neck
up," Sturz said.