PARENTS MUST STEER KIDS STRAIGHT

Steven Creamer, Leominster's school resource officer, told the Sentinel &
Enterprise drugs aren't hard to come by anymore.

"It's who you know," said Creamer. "It could be an older brother, it could
be the guy down the street, it could be someone here."

Creamer says some high-school kids don't even try to hide their drug use.
"A lot of kids are open about their drug use. It's almost like it's a badge
of honor for some kids," Creamer said. "Other kids are straight edge and
wear that as a badge of honor."

Creamer talks about high-school drug use in today's installment of our
special 10-part report, "Decades of Addiction-Drugs in North Central Mass."
Many students and administrators say there's always been drug use by
high-school students, but now teenagers here in North Central
Massachusetts have access to a wider range of drugs.

Where in the past students may have stuck to marijuana and alcohol, they
now may be using cocaine, a variety of prescription drugs, and even heroin.
"Back in the '70s, it was primarily marijuana. Now we have cocaine, pills.
We never had Ecstasy back then," said Gardner High School Principal Robert
Gillis. Dora Arnhold, a Gardner high school student, says many parents are
naive about their children's drug and alcohol use.

"Parents. They have no idea," The Gardner High student said. "Their kids
would never do something like that. ... Their kids are perfect." Many area
high schools have ramped up their efforts to stop illegal drug use and
drinking by teenagers.

But they can only do part of the job. The rest belongs to parents, who
need to reach out to their children to know when there's a problem. Here's
some telltale signs of drug use: * Grades dropping * Change in friends *
Borrowing or stealing money * Violent outbursts * Reckless behavior * Use
of eyedrops * Curfew violations * Glassy eyes * Lying * Valuables missing
and * Secretive behavior Sentinel & Enterprise Copyright 2005