POOR SHOWING FOR TOWN DRUG FORUM

HAMPTON - A forum planned by the Seacoast Community Safety Net drug
prevention coalition last week was specially designed to advise parents on
ways to prevent and detect drug use by their children. The program's
information did exactly that. The problem was, most parents in the region
were nowhere in sight. About 30 people attended the seminar, some of whom
were members of the coalition itself. Of the 30, about 20 were parents
taking advantage of the information presented by Lt. Eddie Edwards, the
drug recognition specialist at the New Hampshire Liquor Commission. Edwards
and other attendees commented on the small size of the audience.

"We should have more people here," Edwards said during his presentation.
"We should have more people invested in our communities' kids than this."
John Welch, the Hampton parent of three sons, said he found the information
Edwards passed on valuable, and he planned to "share that information with
other parents."

"I really thought there'd be more parents here than this," Welch added.
Hampton Academy Junior High School Principal Fred Muscara welcomed the
parents who came to the program presented at his school, but added his
dissatisfaction at the number present.

"I'm very disappointed in the turnout," Muscara said. "We're not being
honest with ourselves."

Along with being principal at Hampton's junior high, Muscara spent 10 years
as an assistant principal at Winnacunnet High School. Muscara said Seacoast
towns and their schools are like every community and school across the
nation - drugs are a part of life, he said; thinking they aren't around
children here is wishful, unrealistic and dangerous thinking.

"We have to be honest with ourselves," Muscara said. "We're no different
than any other community. We have problems with drugs."

Edwards explained that tobacco, alcohol and marijuana were the most
prevalent drugs used in the Seacoast area, according to statistics. He
doesn't believe parents can consider their children's experimentation with
these drugs as normal. Nor, he said, can parents think that their kids are
immune to abusing these or stronger illegal drugs.

"Most people think their kids' use of these drugs is a rite of passage,"
Edwards said, "but they shouldn't. It can lead to other things. ... We let
it happen because we don't hold kids accountable."

When kids become accustomed to the high of alcohol and marijuana, he said,
"they may look for the next high, the next bigger, better high." That can
be heroine, he said, or any of the other dangerous brands of stimulants,
narcotics, hallucinogenic and barbiturates available that can kill them.
And, he said, parents have to keep on their toes constantly because kids
are more sophisticated these days. That sophistication, he said, is due to
their ability to access drug-related information very easily. "I can give
you all the street names of drugs here tonight," Edwards said, "and by
tomorrow the names may change. ... Kids can go to a chat room on the Web
and get new names of drug, learn how and where to get them, or even make
them." Edwards said he considers the Internet the "Anti-Christ," because of
its ability to educate kids about drugs. He believes parents need to
monitor closely their children's use of the Internet, keeping the computer
in plain view. Edwards also believes parents should check their children's
rooms, backpacks and clothing. Checking for drugs has nothing to do with
trust, he said, it has to do with love and wanting to keep kids safe,
sometimes from themselves. Muscara gave parents an example of a recent
local drug-related tragedy as he welcomed them. Then, he explained the need
for constancy in their war against drug and alcohol abuse as he bid them
farewell.

"We had a wake last Monday night," Muscara said in his welcome, "an
18-year-old kid who overdosed on drugs.

"It's up to us to be vigilant. ... Please, I want to tell you," he said at
the program's end, emotion thick in his voice. "I don't want to go to
another wake."