METH USE DROPPING AMONG STUDENTS

But Experts Disagree On How Best To Treat Addicts And Prevent Even More Drug
Use

McKinley High School students Kelly and Shelly Tuifagu say they've been
pressured to use crystal methamphetamine in their neighborhood, but, like the
majority of Hawaii students, they have refused.

As concern grows about the spread of the drug across the islands, surveys
conducted in public and private schools offer a glimmer of hope: More students
seem to be steering clear of "ice" these days.

"I think about my mom, especially, when I get pressured," said Kelly, a junior.
"I don't want to disappoint her or bring shame on my family."

The number of high school seniors in public and private schools who say they
have tried methamphetamine has fallen steadily to 5.3 percent last year from
11.7 percent in 1989. Those who acknowledge using ice in the past 30 days
dropped to 1.8 percent from 5.5 percent.

"The student population seems to be growing aware of the risks associated with
methamphetamine use," said Renee Storm Pearson, principal investigator for the
2002 Hawaii Student Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Use Study, sponsored by the
state Department of Health.

"Meth use among students was alarmingly high from 1989 to 1998," she said. "Now
that meth use is dropping among our youth, we are likely to see it dropping
among our young adults in a few years."

The anonymous written survey, given to sixth- through 12th-graders in all
public and a third of Hawaii's private schools, reflects only those adolescents
who are actually attending school. But another statistic indicates that meth
use among teenagers as a whole is not spiking up the way adult use appears to
be.

The number of adolescents in Hawaii being treated for ice as their primary drug
has remained relatively steady over the past several years, according to state
Department of Health figures. One of every 10 adolescents treated for substance
abuse statewide is hooked on ice, the same as in 1998. That was 158 teens out
of 1,552 treated in 2002, and 189 out of 1,821 treated in 1998.

Meanwhile, the number of adults being treated for ice addiction has nearly
doubled to 2,730, or 43 percent of the total treated for substance abuse in
2002, up from 26 percent in 1998. That makes ice now their primary drug of
choice, while teens still abuse mostly marijuana and alcohol.

Crystal meth keeps a low profile on school campuses. Unlike marijuana, the drug
has no telltale smell. Few students, in any case, risk pulling out ice pipes on
campus.

"If I was smoking ice, why would I want to be in school?" asked Mike Taniguchi,
who tried the drug for the first time at a friend's house in eighth grade and
soon progressed to regular use. "You'd rather be at a house because of the
paranoia and everything."

Taniguchi, now 20 and sober for four years, said he did not smoke on campus but
did miss a lot of school. By his freshman year he was getting high so often
that he dropped out. He wound up jailed for burglary at 16, a "lucky break"
that got him seven months in residential treatment and a new start.

Ice is a major problem among teenagers whose drug use is so heavy that they
need inpatient care. At Bobby Benson Center, a third of the patients admitted
in the first half of this year abused ice primarily; at Maui Youth and Family
Services, the ratio has grown to half.

While such chronic users tend to drift away from school, the drug's effects do
show up on campus. Users come to school edgy and punchy.

"In school we don't see much crystal meth itself," said John Hammond, vice
principal at McKinley. "We see the results. It manifests itself in behavior and
in absenteeism and grades going south very quickly.

"The other way we find out is when students get in trouble with the law for
fighting, stealing, whatever. Their probation officers will test them and find
they're positive for that particular substance," he said.

Concern about ice use among adolescents has prompted calls for drug testing in
schools, an idea championed by Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, host of next week's
statewide drug summit. Legislators deferred the proposal earlier this year,
raising privacy and cost concerns.

A small private school, Academy of the Pacific, has hired a drug-sniffing dog
to check student lockers and backpacks. Mid-Pacific Institute is consulting
with parents about the possibility of testing its students for drugs or using a
dog to sniff for contraband.

Advocates argue that testing will deter students from using drugs and help
identify those needing help. City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle has said test
results would not be used in a punitive manner.

"The whole idea is not to kick these kids out of school," he said. "The idea is
to figure out who has a problem and fix it. This is a classic prevention tool."

But others suggest the state's limited funds should instead go into expanding
treatment programs and prevention, including athletics. A federally financed
study of 76,000 students nationwide, published in May in the Journal of School
Health, found drug use just as common in schools with drug testing as in those
without it.

The need for substance abuse services for teenagers far exceeds what is
available in Hawaii, both inpatient and outpatient, officials say. There are
only two residential treatment programs for adolescents in the state.

"To impose random drug testing on Hawaii's schoolchildren at a time when the
data show a reduction in ice use in the schools sends a mixed message," said D.
William Wood, University of Hawaii sociology professor and a member of the Drug
Epidemiology Work Group of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"We might better consider the programs in the schools that appear to have been
responsible for those positive changes and put resources into them," Wood said.

The state Health Department pays for substance abuse counselors in 29 of
Hawaii's 44 public high schools and three of its 56 middle schools, and would
like to cover more campuses, according to Elaine Wilson, chief of the Alcohol
and Drug Abuse Division. The network is designed to reach kids early, when they
start experimenting.

"One of the powerful things about school-based treatment is that it gives us
the opportunity to intervene with teens prior to them losing control of their
drug use," said Tony Pfaltzgraff, co-executive director of the Kalihi YMCA,
whose counselors work in schools. "It's more cost-efficient. To get kids who
are abusing to stop is a huge gain for society."

In the confidential 16-week program, counselors help kids come to grips with
their substance abuse and identify the consequences of their behavior.

They build positive relationships through activities that show teens how to
have fun without drugs.

For some students the program offers a lifeline. Sierra, who is entering her
senior year at a Windward high school and asked that her real name not be used,
started using marijuana and alcohol in seventh grade. Until earlier this year,
she managed to avoid the ice that had hooked her sisters. When she tried it,
she was shocked.

"It's nothing like weed," she said, an earnest look in her brown eyes. "It's so
addicting." She credits the substance abuse counselor at her school with
helping give her the strength to step back from crystal meth, along with pot
and alcohol.

"She talked me out of it," Sierra said. "I didn't want to want to end up like
my sisters. My sisters are drug addicts and have been since they were young."

Experts say early intervention is important with teenagers, whose brains are
still developing and may be shaped in part by their experiences, including drug
use.

"Ice causes some of the most severe cognitive impairments that you see with any
drug," said Colleen Fox, director of adolescent services at Hina Mauka. "That
makes ice users a particularly difficult population to treat."

Catherine Bruns, executive director at Bobby Benson, said patients discharged
from residential facilities like hers need intensive outpatient care that is
not available for adolescents in Hawaii.

"They're in the beginning stages of learning to cope with their addiction," she
said. "These changes aren't cemented."

A study by the state Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division last year showed that
nearly half of adolescents sampled six months after treatment for drug and
alcohol abuse had not used any substance in the previous month. Ninety-five
percent were in school, vocational training or employed.

In some cases, school counselors suggest strategies that may not be taken to
heart until months or years later, when teens come face to face with the
consequences of their drug use.

"When they're ready to make that change, they know where to come," said Charlee
Mallott, co-executive director of the Kalihi YMCA. "It's not as if they have to
know a doctor or go down to some office building. We're there."

Sixteen-year-old Joshua grew up on the North Shore in a home where, instead of
food, his mother's boyfriend cooked crack cocaine on the stove. Their fridge
was always empty. Joshua (not his real name) went to school just to get lunch.

Much of the time, he and his friends ran wild, "jacking" people -- assaulting
them for their money, jewelry, even their shoes -- in hopes of trading them for
ice.

"I feel bad about it now, all the people we beat up," he said, a black knit cap
pulled tight over his brows.

He has been clean now for six months, living with an aunt in a healthy
environment, but knows he has a long way to go in recovering. "Like
multiplication," he said with a sheepish look. "I know I knew that before. How
come I don't know it now?"

The substance abuse counselor at his old school recently agreed to work with
him again even though he is no longer in her district. She was the first adult,
he said, ever to earn his trust.

"If my mom could do this to me," he pointed out, "who am I going to trust?"