TEENS AT RISK: MORE DRUGS, MORE USERS, MORE DANGER

Teens are beginning to turn away from alcohol and toward drugs, but
even if parents are busy having more 'safe adults' around can keep
them out of trouble

The drugs your children are using are more powerful, more easily
available and more dangerous than ever.

The marijuana they're smoking is far more powerful than in the past,
local experts say, with higher concentrations of the active
ingredient, a chemical called THC.

And sometimes, the drug dealers lace the marijuana with cocaine,
hoping to make addicts of their young customers.

As well, more teens are abusing prescription drugs. They steal them
from their parents, buy them on the street, or break into pharmacies.

A favourite: The powerful painkiller OxyContin, which can be fatal if
it's crushed and swallowed, injected, or sniffed.

Police say the price of drugs has come down, bringing them within
closer reach of kids who can start as young as 10 years old.

The hallucinogenic drug known as Ecstasy was $20 to $25 a pill a few
years back. But last summer, says Det.-Const. Ron Swainson of
Waterloo Regional Police, you could get two tablets for $10.

"Youth are more at risk of being seriously harmed on drugs than
before," Swainson says.

And whether it's binge drinking or hallucinogenic drug-taking, we've
got a bigger problem in this area than in the rest of Ontario.

Students in Grades 9 to 12 in the Waterloo Region and Wellington
County areas are reporting higher use of every single illegal drug
than the Ontario average, according to a 2007 survey for the Centre
on Mental Health and Addictions.

More than 40 per cent of our high school students used cannabis in
the past year, compared with 34.7 per cent across the province.

Fourteen per cent of local teens used hallucinogens, nearly twice as
many as the 7.6 per cent across Ontario.

Ecstasy, a drug manufactured in illicit labs, is used by 7.7 per cent
of local teens, compared with 4.7 per cent across the province

24.5 per cent of Waterloo Region students believe they have a drug
use problem, compared to 20.1 per cent across Ontario.

Overall, teenagers are using alcohol and tobacco less, and drugs more.

High school students across Ontario have stopped smoking as much,
with just 11.9 per cent reporting tobacco use in 2007, down from 14.4
per cent in 2005.

Alcohol, the runaway favourite drug of choice for teens, is also down
a tiny bit: 61.2 per cent in 2007 compared with 62 per cent in 2005.

Now OxyContin and its painkilling cousins are taking a new hold. It's
the third most popular type of drug used among people aged 16 to 24
who come to Grand River Hospital's withdrawal management centre to get help.

From April to August this year, 38 people in that age group came to
the centre for relief from addiction to OxyContin and similar drugs.
Only cannabis, with 42 admissions, and alcohol, with 53, were higher.

"OxyContin is one of our leading drug problems," says Lesley DeYoung,
the hospital's clinical director for adolescent outpatient services,
including mental health and drug addiction.

If a parent has a bad back or has been in an accident, and needs
around-the-clock pain relief, he or she might be prescribed
OxyContin, which can relieve pain for up to 12 hours.

It's easy for their child to take one or two pills out of the bottle,
and "nobody notices," said DeYoung.

"You can sell them on the street for good money. It's a 'nice' drug.
It mellows everything out. These kids are pretty anxious."

OxyContin pills sell for $20 to $40 each on the street, Swainson
says. So it can be tempting for someone with a prescription to sell a
few pills for easy money.

Teens are beginning to turn away from alcohol and toward drugs, in
part because drugs are easier to hide. The smell of alcohol can be a
giveaway to adults, and the bottles are heavy. But with a drug like
OxyContin, "you can function in school," said DeYoung.

"You look mellow."

That "mellow" feeling from drugs is desperately sought out by teens
who have mental health problems, like low self-esteem or anxiety, experts say.

"They self-medicate," especially if their mental health issues aren't
being addressed by professionals, says Lila Read, principal of
Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School.

Read recently got funding from the province to pay for an addiction
counsellor to work at the school.

"This has been a blessing for a lot of kids and a lot of families," she says.

But it's not just Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate that's facing this.
"All schools suffer with addictions," Read says.

Some students don't even pay for their drugs, saying their friends
give it to them for nothing.

For example, a young woman who is in a sexual relationship with a man
who gives her drugs, may not make the connection between her sexual
generosity and the "free" drugs she gets.

"They don't see that it's a trade," says Glynis Burkhalter, director
of youth addiction services for Ray of Hope. The agency offers
residential and outpatient drug treatment, as well as counselling to
the community and to local high schools, including Kitchener-Waterloo
Collegiate.

One reason OxyContin has become so popular - its use has increased by
80 per cent in two years across Ontario - is because teens might
believe it's safer than other drugs.

Teens are aware that they can't always trust a dealer. An "ecstasy"
pill can contain other drugs that don't even have the traditional
active ingredient. Marijuana might be mixed with cocaine or crack,
and has even been known to be "cut" with rat poison, DeYoung says.

"People feel that the tablets are a prescription medication and
they're not dangerous," because they're produced commercially, says Swainson.

Of course, this feeling of safety is an illusion. OxyContin is so
powerful that it has a time-release coating on it, so that when the
pill is swallowed as directed, the pain reliever is released little
by little inside the patient's body.

But drug abusers often crush the pills, and then swallow or snort the
drug, or mix it with water and inject it.

Crushing the pills destroys the time-release coating. It increases
the power of the pills so much that they can - and do-kill.

OxyContin is powerfully addictive and the withdrawal symptoms are
very unpleasant. They include hot and cold sweats, nausea and
vomiting, fatigue, and other flu-like symptoms.

DeYoung says parents should start asking questions if they have a
teenager who gets "the flu" a lot.

And if adults have a prescription for OxyContin, count the pills to
make sure no one is taking them, she advises.

Kim Baker, program consultant for the Centre for Addiction and Mental
Health, says parents of teens should keep their OxyContin hidden away.

"If you have a toddler, you don't leave the aspirin bottle out," she
says. "If you have a teenager, don't leave the OxyContin bottle out."

Her organization has also held a workshop for area pharmacists and
physicians to discuss the increased dangers of prescription opioids.

It's difficult to know if your child is using something like
OxyContin, and parents are often "heartbroken" to find out their
child is addicted, DeYoung says.

"They're very concerned," she said. They'll ask: "What did I do
wrong? How can I help?"

But by the time their child is addicted, there isn't a lot the parent
can do, she said. Treatment doesn't work well if the child is brought
in against his or her will.

Sometimes it takes a crisis for the teen to seek treatment
wholeheartedly, like being arrested by police, or if a girlfriend or
boyfriend leaves the teen because of the drug-taking.

Burkhalter of Ray of Hope says teens can be left unprotected by
society's beliefs.

Many parents believe that it's part of normal adolescence for
teenagers to turn to their friends more, and pay less attention to
their parents.

"We believe, as adults, that kids don't need us as much," she says.
But research indicates that this isn't so.

"They still need a safe harbour in a storm," Burkhalter says.

Teenagers aren't fully psychologically developed. They themselves can
be unstable, with intense emotional needs. So when teens make close
bonds with other teens, they're seeking love and approval from peers
who can't always provide that, Burkhalter says.

Many parents care for their kids and provide them with stable and
loving homes. But perhaps there's a job loss, and a stay-at-home
parent must work during the day. Or a parent loses a job and has to
go to school in the evenings to retrain.

"All of a sudden, they're not as available," she says.

Parents can't help it if they have to work or study more. But they
don't have to feel they must raise their children alone.

They can surround the child with other stable, safe adults, like
grandparents, coaches, guidance counsellors, or trusted friends.

These adults are "safe places," says Burkhalter, "An available,
psychologically stable adult."

Sometimes, when the whole community gets together, drug addictions
can be beaten, says Swainson of the police.

Eight years ago, in Baden., one person brought a supply of heroin to
a house party and offered samples. The highly addictive drug turned a
number of local teens into addicts.

But the community worked with police, Swainson among them. The
suspect was watched and eventually arrested. And "the problem did
quiet down," he said.

Like other experts, Swainson believes that the key to preventing drug
abuse in teens is to talk to young people early about the dangers.

"Education is the key," he says.

No one wants to let their child go to a house party with friends,
only to find out later in the evening that they've overdosed.

"It's everyone's worst nightmare," he says.

Websites:

Ray of Hope - www.rayofhope.net

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health: - www.camh.net

National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (U.S.) - theantidrug.com

National Anti-Drug Strategy (Canada) - nationalantidrugstrategy.gc.ca

Books:

Hold On To Your Kids: Why Parents Need To Matter More Than Peers, by
Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate, M.D. Vintage Canada, 2003

Choices and Consequences: What to Do When a Teenager Uses
Alcohol/Drugs, by Dick Schaefer, Hazelden Information and Education
Services, 1987