EASY MONEY ROUTE TURNS SOUR

In 2003, area schools referred 318 students suspected of drug use to
Cumberland-Perry Drug and Alcohol Services, says Candy D'Agostino, director
of prevention services. And that's just the ones who were caught. She says
most teenagers start out using drugs simply "because they're curious." They
see drug use on television, among friends and sometimes at home, "and, if
no one's keeling over from using, they may feel safe to use, too."

Nate Lukens was a quick drive away from easy money before he became a
heroin addict.

When business was good, he made three or four runs a day to pick up
dime-size bags of heroin for $5 each in Philadelphia. He sold them at home
for $40 a pop.

A 16-year-old Perry County resident at the time, he eventually sampled the
drug and stopped dealing, hoarding every speck for himself. But there were
other teens to take his place in the lucrative market.

In Franklin County, teenagers "take orders at school during lunch, skip out
on afternoon classes to get drugs in Baltimore, and they're back with the
drugs by the time school lets out," says Ami Hooper-Knox, an adolescent
outpatient therapist for Roxbury Treatment Center in Chambersburg.

Easy, Profitable

A Cumberland County teenager who deals drugs in Carlisle says illegal
substances are easy to get in bulk from New York City, bringing him a
weekly profit of about $5,000 in marijuana and cocaine sales.

Drug havens in Pittsburgh and - closer yet - Harrisburg also supply drug
users in the region.

"We live in an era where kids can get what they want at the drop of a
dime," Hooper-Knox says.

Asked why area teens use, a Carlisle 19-year-old says, "Around here,
there's nothing to do, so you might as well do drugs."

He estimates, "Well over half the population here does drugs."

Easy Access

Today's teens have quick, parents-free access to each other through e-mail,
on-line instant messages and cellular phones, so it's not hard to make
connections with someone distributing the drugs they want.

Through the Internet, teens can track down mail-order drug companies that
don't require prescriptions.

Also on the 'Net are drug recipe books, dictionaries of slang drug terms,
pro-drug encyclopedias and businesses selling merchandise to hide drug use
in drug tests.

And information doesn't just come on-line.

Magazines such as High Times, a pro-marijuana publication, are available to
all ages, and the old standby - word of mouth - is only strengthened by
these resources.

For a generation always on-line and always connected, using a "don't tell"
policy isn't enough, because teens have educated themselves about using,
hiding and getting drugs.

"You name it, and the kids are doing it," says Sgt. Steven Junkin of the
state police at Carlisle.

"It's not just a few underground. Most kids know who's doing it and they
could write a shopping list of who to go to for each drug - OxyContin,
cocaine, mushrooms...."

In the Medicine Chest

Teens don't have to go far to find drugs; they can abuse inhalants,
prescriptions and even cough medicines found in their own homes.

Junkin says increasingly younger children sniff glue and other chemical
products for a "high."

The substances slow one's system and can even stop the heart, causing
"Sudden Sniffing Death."

Teens "farm" medicines they find at home by taking them to parties,
throwing them in a bowl and abusing them randomly.

They swap their own prescription pills between classes at school,
swallowing them immediately or later crushing and snorting them in bathroom
stalls.

Junkin says this form of abuse makes his job a lot tougher. "The thing with
pills is, they're not easy to detect," he notes. "Marijuana used to be 'the
drug,' and we could smell it on them or find the paraphernalia."

Whether popping pills, guzzling cough syrup or purchasing crack cocaine,
many teens are becoming addicted to drugs, and they're becoming masters of
disguise.

A Shippensburg 17-year-old in recovery says he regularly smuggled drugs
into school and snorted cocaine, OxyContin and heroin in bathroom stalls,
and it was just as easy at home.

The bulk of his drug use took place in his bedroom. "My mom gave me my
space," he says. "She never went through my stuff. It was my business."

A Chambersburg 18-year-old did drugs "everywhere."

Sometimes, he raided the family medicine cabinet and used while still in
the bathroom. At school, "I was a big pill guy, so I just put them in my
lunch or whatever and no one noticed."

Kids who abuse inhalants may paint White Out on their fingernails or soak
their hair ties in nail polish remover, then huff the fumes.

Compact disc cases double as a surface for snorting crack cocaine and
crushed pills. Bottles of cough syrup are smuggled into movie theaters, and
"touring," or smoking pot while driving around town, has become a pastime
for many teens.

Street Smart

Even the way teen drug users talk is masked.

"They're street smart like you wouldn't believe," says Chris Colondrillo, a
juvenile probation officer in Cumberland County. "They have different names
for different drugs. It changes all the time, and it's hard to keep up."

They're also "very sophisticated in ways of circumventing the laws," says
Bob Shull, chief probation officer in Perry County. The juveniles his
office deals with would be straight-A students if they were as well-versed
in their schoolwork as they are in the drug culture, he says.

Brian Stoesz, a drug and alcohol awareness specialist, says he's heard of
everything from gum to hide alcohol on one's breath - to vitamin
supplements to clear urine of drugs faster - to the "Whizzinator," a
battery-operated device that keeps urine heated and comes out through a
wire hidden in prosthetic genitals.

"There are dozens if not hundreds of tools to hide drug use," he says.
Luckily, the tools aren't fool-proof.

Even the sophisticated-sounding Whizzinator overheats urine beyond humanly
possible temperatures, so as long as testers watch closely, drug use is
still caught.

Children may begin experimenting with drugs as early as age eight, so
there's no time to waste.

Stoesz says, "Information is king," and the best thing parents can do is
get informed and make sure their children know the risks. Chances are, they
already know the benefits.