DRUGS TAKE ROOT IN RURAL AMERICA

New evidence shows that teens in small towns now use more illicit
substances than their counterparts in cities.

ALAMOSA, COLO.

The setting is idyllic: fertile fields, bounded by rows of grain
silos, and cows nibbling peacefully in pastures. Here, youths raise
livestock for 4-H projects and help their families with crops. And in
their free time, some experiment with drugs.

[Map showing Colorado]

Not long ago, illicit drug use was considered a "big city" problem.
Small-town families took comfort in the belief that their children
were safe from the influences of urban drug culture. But the growing
prevalence of methamphetamines and marijuana has darkened the Currier
& Ives picture. As recent studies and interviews with local officials
show, rural teens are now more likely to use drugs than their
counterparts in the big city. "Juvenile arrests have been on the rise
over the past five years," says Sheriff Dave Strong. While tougher
enforcement is a factor, juvenile drug use is simply more prevalent,
he and others say.

The causes range from the widely bruited decline of the nuclear family
and that modern scapegoat, the Internet, to teenagers' tendency to
experiment - a factor in any age. Those components, combined with the
easy availability of ingredients needed to make drugs, are believed to
be behind the startling statistics.

In fact, rural eighth-graders are twice as likely as urban teens to
use amphetamines, 34 percent likelier to use marijuana, and 50 percent
more likely to use cocaine, according to a study by the National
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University
in New York. "It was kind of a shock to me when I read the statistics
saying that drug use was higher in rural areas," says Dennis Mooney,
agent-in-charge at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's office in
Montrose. Indeed, as a father to teenagers, Agent Mooney had viewed
Montrose - a western Colorado town of 9,000 - as a safe, wholesome
place to raise kids.

Colorado's farming communities are hardly alone, says Susan Foster,
CASA vice president. Their problems with rising drug use are mirrored
in small towns from coast to coast.

Last year, when the Alamosa school district surveyed seventh and
eighth-graders, the results were alarming: Asked about drugs'
availability, 70 percent said alcohol was easy to obtain, 62 percent
said marijuana was readily available, and 37 percent said they'd have
little trouble getting hold of cocaine.

Not isolated enough

Despite its relative remoteness - the nearest
city is more than 100 miles away - Alamosa lies along a major traffic
route, midway between Denver and Albuquerque. "Accessibility [of
drugs] is not a problem," says Dave Thompson, superintendent of
Alamosa schools.

In Steamboat Springs, Colo. (pop. 7,000), 250 miles north, Lt. Rick
Crotz is battling the same scenario. When it comes to drug
availability, he says, small communities are no different than urban
areas: "Those who want to do drugs find them."

Ninth-grader Dan Parker does not do drugs - but not for lack of
opportunity.

[Photo of DEA agents about to, "search a Springfield, Mo., house for a meth lab"]

"Drugs are easily available at most schools, including
mine," he says. In his rural town, many teens have tried drugs. And
while it isn't requisite to be considered "cool," those who do drugs
aren't shunned, either, he says. "I have several friends who smoke
weed ... that's the people's own business." Howard Simon, spokesman
for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America in New York, says parents
everywhere should view the latest data as a wake-up call: "It's
important for parents to realize it's a problem, wherever they live.
If rural parents think their kids aren't exposed to drugs, they should
think again. And it all comes back to the key role parents play in
this," he says. Although small towns may be at a disadvantage in
battling drugs, many are becoming more proactive now, says Mr. Simon.
"They're not waiting for someone else to fix the problem."

Three years ago, the Alamosa school district initiated a drug-free
education program in its middle school. Carla Garcia, program
coordinator, says an early start is essential. "Students begin
experimenting with tobacco in the sixth grade - sometimes earlier. And
tobacco is considered a gateway drug," she says.

Looking for reasons

But schools can't solve this problem alone, says
Mr. Thompson, district superintendent. "Our schools are a reflection
of our society, and problems that we see in society will show up in
schools." The decline of the family structure is one factor that can't
be ignored, he says. "There are more single-parent families, and more
two-career families," Thompson says. "There are greater demands on
everyone, and no one has created a 25th hour. All of this takes a toll."

[Graph of "Drug Use by Eighth Graders" from the Monitoring the Future Study. Part of their conclusions are that eights graders in rural areas in 1999 were more likely to use drugs than eighth graders in metropolitan areas. From the graph: "Metropolitan areas refer to counties or groups of economically integrated counties containing a central city with a population of over 50,000. Large metropolitan areas are areas over 1 million in population. Small metropolitan areas have populations between 50,000 and 1 million. Rural areas are counties with no city of over 50,000. SOURCE: THE MONITORING THE FUTURE STUDY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN"]

Simon, meanwhile, points to the role of pop culture in glamorizing
drug use. Take multiple Oscar-winner "American Beauty," he says, which
"focused on a character whose life altered when he became a drug
user." And then there's the Internet - which carries unprecedented
influences to rural areas. "People complain that kids can go on the
Internet to find bomb recipes. Well, the instructions for how to make
drugs are on the Internet, too," says Simon.

Methamphetamine is one drug that can be made easily with ingredients
from a hardware store, and illicit production of "meth" has been
skyrocketing in the West. No one knows how much of this can be traced
to the Internet, but lab seizures by the DEA have increased six-fold
in the past five years. Local law-enforcement agencies seized more
than 4,000 meth labs in 1999 alone. In Colorado's Weld County, the
highest agricultural-producing county in the nation, breaking up
methamphetamine labs has become a routine event, says Greeley Police
Sgt. John Gates. Last year, eight to 10 labs were seized within the
city limits: "A couple of years ago, I would have said that's unheard
of in Greeley. Now, I'm sad to say, it's common." Still, some question
whether rural drug problems are new - or merely getting more attention
now. "A lot has to do with various organizations obtaining more
accurate information from rural areas than in the past," says Mooney.
"Narcotics is a major [problem for] society, and it has been for a
long time.