SMOKER AT THREE, DRUGGIE BY 12

Michael, 14, cannot remember the exact moment when he had his first
cigarette puff, but is fairly confident he was smoking at age three.

From then, till he started school, he smoked with his siblings
intermittently. When their mum threw parties, they would steal
cigarettes and smoke them later. It was only a matter of time before
they were stealing and smoking marijuana.

Teen drug counselling service WellTrust says Wellington children like
Michael are developing full-blown drug or alcohol habits before they
leave primary school.

WellTrust has helped 1046 Wellington teenagers aged 12 to 17 with
alcohol or drug problems in the past six years. About 80 per cent of
those became hooked on drugs or alcohol after developing smoking
habits at an early age.

Michael's eldest sister, aged about nine at the time, would give the
three-year-old lit cigarettes to smoke. Cigarettes and cannabis were
common in the family home and counsellors say Michael's belief that
he started smoking at three is credible given the environment.

The same sister was with Michael when, aged 10, he smoked his first
joint. He started smoking marijuana regularly at 11 and cigarettes
daily from age 12. He is now receiving counselling and has reduced
his twice-daily marijuana habit to once or twice a week.

All WellTrust clients are interviewed on their past drug, alcohol and
cigarette use. Smoking cigarettes is of interest to drug counsellors
because it is considered a "gateway" to illicit drug use, WellTrust
executive director Murray Trenberth says.

Data collected from the teenagers revealed 112 had their first
cigarette aged eight or under, 11 of those aged five and under. Of
the 19 teenagers who had their first puff at age six, the average age
they started habitual smoking was 11. In most cases siblings or other
relatives provided the cigarettes and in some cases helped to light them.

Mr Trenberth, former principal of Taita College in Lower Hutt, said
that, when considering the dysfunctional homes some of his clients
were raised in and the way their lives had become characterised by
anti-social behaviour in just 12 years of life, the claims of first
smoking as pre-schoolers were credible.

"When you meet these kids you can see it is absolutely credible."

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) director Becky Freeman said
WellTrust's data was shocking. The incidence of pre-schoolers smoking
raised obvious parenting concerns. ASH's data placed the average
starting age for habitual smoking at 14, but WellTrust was dealing
with children whose problems were at the severe end of the drug-using spectrum.

"These are exceptionally high-risk (children)."

About 80 per cent of those referred to WellTrust had smoked
cigarettes before progressing to marijuana.

The School Trustees' Association's national conference in
Christchurch last week heard that some primary and secondary schools
were drug-testing pupils. Of the 5000 suspensions in New Zealand last
year, 29 per cent were for drug use.

Mr Trenberth said drugs increasingly affected all socio-economic and
racial groups. Busy parents who left their children at home alone
with substantial pocket money were just as likely to have children
taking drugs as dysfunctional families.

"Increasingly, (we get) a lot of very ordinary kids."

WellTrust's database showed the drug of choice for 66 per cent of
clients was marijuana, 24 per cent alcohol and just 0.1 per cent pure
methamphetamine or P.

The average WellTrust client is truant from school about eight days a month.