RUSSIANS KNOW:OUR TEENS HAVE SUBSTANCE ABUSE PROBLEM

You always wanted to know what an "at risk" youth is. Well, there's your
answer: Any kid approaching seventh grade.

The roomful of Russians, who were in Topeka to learn about our drug
prevention efforts, wanted to know why drug and alcohol use among teens
appears higher in Shawnee County than elsewhere in the state.

Images of lobbyists at the Statehouse leaped to mind, and I proposed that
perhaps it was because of our higher concentration of politicians.

Well, the joke fell flat as a week-old beer, and for good reason: This is
serious stuff, both here and in Russia.

You don't have to tell that to northeast Kansans. We've seen more than our
share of problems with teens and alcohol lately, with fatal wrecks and a
shooting that involved underage drinking.

And, frankly, Shawnee County parents ought to be alarmed by what the
Russians and I heard during a presentation at Shawnee Regional Prevention
Center, 2209 S.W. 29th.

By the eighth grade -- let's see, what age is that, 13? -- nearly half of
area students have tried cigarettes and 60 percent have tried alcohol.

That means that the next time you parents of eighth-graders get together at
school, six out of 10 of you have children who have tried or are using
alcohol. Almost 37 percent of them reported having used alcohol in the 30
days prior to being asked.

If it never got any worse than that, perhaps we could chalk it up to
youthful experimentation -- or, perhaps, parents letting their kids have a
taste of a beer or wine at home.

It's much different from that, however. It's a pattern.

The survey of sixth-, eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders shows, for instance, a
noticeable spike in cigarette, alcohol and marijuana use as kids make their
way from sixth to eighth grades: 28 percent of sixth graders reported using
alcohol once in their lives, as opposed to the 60 percent of eighth graders.
Cigarette use goes up from 19 percent in sixth grade to 48 percent in eighth
grade.

You always wanted to know what an "at risk" youth is. Well, there's your
answer: Any kid approaching seventh grade.

And by the time they are seniors, 83 percent of our kids have consumed
alcohol, 62 percent have tried cigarettes and 46 percent have used
marijuana.

Even more strikingly, so-called binge use -- defined, for the purpose of
alcohol, as having five or more drinks in a row within the past two weeks --
also leaps by the 12th grade, from 12 percent in eighth grade to 34 percent
in the senior year. And 39 percent reported "binge" marijuana use.

And this is just talking about alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana. There's
also an exploding methamphetamine problem. The Shawnee County Sheriff's
Department has raided 13 meth labs since the first of the year, already
eclipsing last year's eight. And from July 1, 1998, through June 30, 1999,
there were 119 meth treatment admissions in the county, more than either of
the state's other two major population centers in Johnson (35) and Sedgwick
(83) counties.

Judging from the feedback from the Russian guests, these are problems the
world over. And Shawnee County's higher numbers may be misleading: Our
aggressive measuring of the problem may account for some of the statistical
differences among counties.

But there's no disputing there's trouble right here in River City.

Thankfully, Shawnee Regional Prevention Center and other area agencies have
an impressive range of programs aimed at reducing the problem. Besides
regular substance abuse treatment -- which there is never enough of --
Shawnee Regional Prevention Center offers a pre-treatment program for youths
in trouble but who are not so far gone that they qualify for full-blown
substance abuse treatment. The program, partially funded with a grant from
the state Juvenile Justice Authority, is an eight-week program aimed at
opening the youth's eyes to how substance use is holding them back.

Parents, too, are counseled about how they may be unwittingly contributing
to their children's substance abuse. It's something they find difficult to
swallow.

We'd better come to grips with it. When so many kids are reporting usage,
it's obvious a lot of parents are oblivious to it.

As for society as a whole, it just seems to me that with such a
well-documented problem -- dramatized week after week in headlines about
teens dying -- we'd better be doing more than building prisons. We had
better invest more in prevention and treatment of substance abuse. It will
save money down the road -- and perhaps a few lives on the streets.