GETTING HIGH WITHOUT LEAVING YOUR HOME TOWN

According To An Addict, And A Pharmacist, Street Drug Use In Brighton Means
More Than Marijuana

A Brighton drug addict claims the town is becoming a "hotbed" for soft and
hard drug abuse and is very concerned for the safety of the users -
children ranging from age 12 through to the early twenties.

Young children are abusing a wide range of substances, he said. Some are
legal; some are illegal; and most are inexpensive. Parents should "at least
know what is going on", he said.

To protect the source's safety, The Independent will refer to him as "Joe".

" I just want parents to know where their kid's lunch money is going," said
Joe. "Kids will get five bucks from their parents, meet up with a friend at
school who got five bucks from their parents. Together, they have ten bucks
- - enough to buy a (gram of marijuana) or cheap pharmaceuticals."

Youth using the drugs are younger than he has ever seen in his 8 years of
drug abuse, he said.

" There are public school kids going to these drug houses," said Joe. "I
have a concern with what's happening because once you've done one hit of
some of this stuff, you're hooked. You might not think you're going to do
it again, but you will . These kids think it's funny. They think it's a game."

Senior Constable Jamie Stone of the Northumberland Ontario Provincial
Police believes that parents are the "first line of defense" in ensuring
Brighton's youth grow up drug-free.

" It all begins at home . parents have to be cognitive of the signs of
drug-use. They have to be the ones to nip it in the bud. They have to watch
for the indicators - missing money, a change in attitude, or a drop in
marks, absence from school; they need to be involved with their kids," he
said. "Don't give them money, make them a lunch."

Joe claims youth are not only using what police might call "soft" or
"prescription" drugs. Brighton has been getting a larger, and steadier
supply of cocaine, crack, ecstasy and mushrooms which kids will buy "for
special occasions, like a weekend".

If illegal drugs are not available, youth in Brighton are turning to drugs
like "Special K" (Cat Tranquilizers), "Hillbilly Heroin" (Oxycodone), or
your average off-the-shelf bottle of cough syrup which, when processed,
contains a mind-altering drug called "DXM" (dextromethorphan).

" The kids are going crazy in this town," said Joe. "It doesn't help that
within a three block radius there are five dealers I can think of, and
that's not including the street dealers. Drugs are just too easy to get."

Constable Stone said the OPP sees the drugs Joe describes, but not in large
quantities. Police believe the most prevalent drug for youth is still
marijuana; but they are hearing a few reports of GHB, Special K, ecstasy
and "magic" mushrooms.

" We're not really finding or hearing anything about LSD or heroin," he said.

Joe is also concerned with the unsafe use of needles in Brighton. He claims
youth are injecting both legal and non-legal drugs into their systems.
Injection "gives a stronger and more immediate high". Youth are sharing
needles and not disposing of them properly, unaware of the consequences of
such actions because "how much can a fifteen-year-old know about needles?".

" The other day I saw a used needle lying on the sidewalk along Main
Street, not even capped or anything," said Joe. "When I' m finding needles
on the ground, I don't think that's cool."

Joe's greatest fear is that nothing is being done about the problem. For
starters, there is no needle exchange program in the community.

A little over a decade ago, Scanlon's I.D.A. Pharmacy Manager Gary Lutz
tried to bring a needle-exchange program to Brighton. His efforts were
unsuccessful.

* In the second part of this story, The Independent will examine what Lutz,
and others, are doing about Brighton's street drug scene.