DRUG TASTES TEND TO VARY FROM SCHOOL TO SCHOOL

Pot. Ecstasy. Liquor. Those drugs of choice vary among teens in San Mateo
County, depending on the school.

And, even as tastes vary from campus to campus, so too do the programs
schools use to counter abuse.

Many schools are even having to come up with different ways to say, "Don't
do drugs."

"They've heard it ad nauseum since kindergarten," said Jean Marie Buckley,
a Burlingame High School counselor. "We're trying to create a new language
and being more blunt with them."

So, counselors are being more direct with on-going conversation through
peer counseling -- teaching students to be more responsible and smart in
taking care of each other. Part of being direct means knowing what
substance students are being faced with.

Depending on where the teen lives or what school he or she goes to, the
drug of choice is different.

In Daly City, teens smoke marijuana, drink alcohol, use methamphetamine and
ecstasy. In Pacifica -- where families have a bit more money -- teens drink
less, but use some cocaine and some crack, said Marianne Laruffa, a
marriage and family therapist at the Daly City Youth Health Center who
works with teens in the Jefferson Union High School District.

At Sequoia High School in Redwood City, students gravitate toward alcohol,
marijuana and ecstasy, said Judy Romero, director of the Sequoia Teen
Resource Center, located at the high school.

Both the teen resource center and the health center work with their schools
and refer students to such places as Asian American Recovery Services in
Daly City, El Centro de Libertad, a recovery program in Redwood City, or
Alateen.

Schools also request help with the Drug Enforcement Administration's Demand
Reduction Program, which enhances national and local drug prevention programs.

DEA agents will visit schools and show the effects drugs have on the brain
and body, said DEA Spokeswoman Casey McEnry.

People like Imelda Perez, who lost her sister Irma to an ecstasy overdose
in April 2004, share their stories with school kids. Irma Perez attended
Ralston Middle School in Belmont.

"Teens need to think about what drugs do because it not only affects them
and their health, but it affects your family, affects your friends and
affects your future," McEnry said.

Soon, the DEA will launch a website for teens to combat drug and alcohol
abuse, she said.

ON THE WEB: http://www.dea.gov