TEEN ADDICTS: PARENTS MISS DRUG SIGNS

By the time many kids enter the South Miami Hospital Addiction Treatment
Program, they've been arrested or kicked out of high school. Most have been
on drugs for three or four years.

But Marino Carbonell, coordinator of the hospital's adolescent program,
said kids start showing symptoms of drug abuse much sooner.

Think 13.

That's the average age when addicted kids start experimenting with drugs or
alcohol, he said. And the signs often are right in front of parents' eyes.

"You'll see matches or paraphernalia on the kid, burn holes in clothes,"
said Alan Goodstat, program director for the Mount Sinai Medical Center's
Addiction Treatment Program in Miami Beach. "There will be a change in
attitude, in dress, in school attendance, in mood -- either hyperactive or
not motivated."

Teenagers in the South Miami treatment program said parents should ask
teachers if their children are alert in the morning.

"I would wake up and feel totally burned out," said a girl, a recovering
cocaine addict. "I used to fall asleep in classes."

Parents should also watch whether their kids' buying habits suddenly
change. The teens said they bought Visine to hide their red eyes, cologne
to mask the smell of alcohol and cough medicine to make them sleepy after
getting high earlier in the night.

Many lost weight. One girl was taken to South Miami Hospital after she lost
40 pounds. Her parents, she said, "thought I had an eating disorder. Then
they found out about the drugs."

Teens on drugs also get beeped and telephoned a lot. They may use the
computer more, as some kids use the Web to find drugs or to chat on the
Internet with other abusers, said Kendall psychologist Andrew Wenger.

Many moms and dads spot the problems -- but don't act on their suspicions,
Carbonell said. Some kids in his program said their parents would question
them after finding drug paraphernalia but would accept their excuses. About
a third to a half classified themselves as "spoiled" who could slip out of
scrapes without being punished.

"Parents threaten a lot," Carbonell said, "but they never do anything.
Until their kids get busted or come home with straight Fs."