HERBAL TEA AND HEROIN

Study suggests teens who use herbal products more likely to try hard
drugs

Local health food stores are skeptical of a new study that found teens
who try herbal products are more likely to have tried hard drugs.

The study looked at 2,006 high school students in Monroe County, New
York.

It found that teens who admitted to using "herbal or natural products"
were 5.9 times more likely to have tried cocaine, 8.8 times more
likely to have tried heroin and 6.8 more likely to have tried
methamphetamines.

"That's bizarre," said Angeline Sewell, owner of Self-Heal-Herbs in
downtown Victoria. "Our whole industry is based on health. Drug abuse
is based on destruction. People who try herbal products tend to be
self-empowered. That doesn't lead to drug use."

Like most studies of this type, researchers cannot make a causal link.
Nobody is claiming that St. John's wort is a gateway drug to crystal
meth.

Yet health-food store-owners are sensitive to the possible negative
connotations of the results and many questioned the motive behind the
study.

Sewell wondered if it was part of the "grand pharmaceutical
(industry's attempt) to say, 'Oh let's get rid of all these herbs.'"

Shaun Emery, Natural Living manager for Planet Organic Market in
Saanich Centre, also questioned the study.

"You are dealing with a very small control group. One group of teens
in a New York county is not a typical reference for what's really
going on in the general public. You always have to question the source
of studies like this as well."

The study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent
Health, was written by Susan Yussman, a doctor and assistant professor
of pediatrics a the University of Rochester's Golisano Children's
Hospital.

Yussman told the Saanich News that she came up with the idea for her
study after reading a study showing an association between food
supplements and high risk behaviors in young military recruits.

In her study, the link she found could be because "children who are
open to experimenting with herbal products may be more open to trying
illicit drugs," Yussman wrote in an e-mail.

"What we can take away (from the study) is that all health care
providers must ask all teens about drug use, and for those that use
herbal products, providers must do a really good job asking about drug
use.

Also, health care providers must provide appropriate counselling to
teens about all products, be they prescription, over-the-counter or
herbal," she said.

The survey did not specify types of herbal products. It asked teens if
they had tried "herbal or other natural products to make you feel
better, or to help you perform better at sports or school," which
could cover anything from performance enhancers such as creatine to
chewable vitamins.

Further studies might narrow the drug use link to specific types of
herbal products, such as sports enhancers, Yussman said.

Sewell offers her own possible explanation: perhaps teens feeling sick
from drugs turn to natural remedies to feel better.

For Carmine Sparanese, manager of Lifestyles Market, the theory of
adventuresome teens made a certain amount of sense.

"I don't know if I'd be surprised (at the results of the study). Kids
are just trying anything at that age," he said.

Like the other store managers, Sparanese said he doesn't notice a lot
of teens in his store.

Five or six years ago, there was a trend among kids taking creatine
for sports, followed by a scare about health effects. Then after
massive number of studies, creatine turned out to be perfectly safe,
he said.

That trend seems to be over. These days Sparanese says he sees teens
coming in with their parents, looking to supplement their diets with
essential fatty acids and protein supplements such as rice protein
powder.

"We're not seeing teens looking for a quick fix," he
said.

Emery said parents come into Planet Organic with their teens looking
for drug alternatives to acne and depression.

Some teens are looking for sports enhancers, Emery
said.

"When teens come in looking for these products, they also want to know
how to use them," he said, noting that there is often a parent
accompanying the teen. "The first thing we do is educate them that
these are supplements for a reason. Proper nutrition, along with
training, are the only way to see true lasting results."

Emery said he started using vitamins since he was 13, while he was in
competitive martial arts.

"While I do use sports supplements like creatine, I have never used
any drugs or steroids," he said, for the record.

The findings

Susan Yussman's study found that teens who have tried herbal products
are:

4.4 times more likely to have ever used LSD, PCP, ecstasy, mushrooms
and other illegal drugs 5.9 times more likely to have ever used
cocaine 6.8 times more likely to have ever used methamphetamines 8.1
times more likely to have ever used IV drugs 8.8 times more likely to
have ever used heroin 14.5 times more likely to have ever used
steroids.

The 2,006 teens were from a random sample and researchers took into
consideration gender, age, and ethnicity when calculating the results.
Over a quarter of the students (28.6 per cent) said they had tried
herbal products.