TEENS IN DRUG REHAB SAY PARENTS SHOULD LOOK HARDER FOR SIGNS OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE

"If I ever have a kid, I'm going to kick down the bedroom door."

When it comes to fighting teen drug use, James Reed has an unusual
suggestion for parents.

"If I ever have a kid," James says, "I'm going to kick down the bedroom door."

Not that he has anything against a little privacy, but James, 16, says a
lot more is going on in some of those bedrooms than parents would imagine.

His mother found a bag filled with a pound of marijuana.

"I told her," he says, smiling, "that I was just holding it for a friend."

James, from Georgia's Douglas County, is a drug abuser. He is one of 15
teens currently enrolled in the Alchemy program operated by New Horizons
Community Service Board in Columbus.

Alchemy is a residential therapeutic community that provides a highly
structured recovery environment for drug-addicted adolescents. Some of the
teens who live in the dormitories have had trouble with the law and have
failed other treatment programs.

Alchemy provides a homebound school program, counseling, recreational
activities, coping skills groups, AA meetings and crisis management, as
well as substance abuse education.

The first phase is an in-house emphasis on the development of
responsibility, emotional freedom and health relationships. "Everything you
need to know about drugs you learn there," James says, "but there's still
more to learn."

The second phase is about further development of responsibility in an
educational and work setting. It works on finding healthy alternatives to
addictive habits.

"It's very strict," James says, "a lot more structured than other programs
I've been around."

Those who come to Alchemy -- most are court ordered -- stay for a minimum
of nine months and some stay as long as 15.

James, who has been in and out of several rehabilitation programs, has been
in this one for almost nine months. He says it has helped him where others
failed.

One of his friends inside is Columbus' Joseph Miller, 16, a former student
at Pacelli. He's been in Alchemy for three months. He, too, feels good
about his progress. "It feels good to be sober," he says.

Some of the Alchemy kids, Joseph says, do volunteer work in the community
and speak to groups about drug use.

The two are quick to dispel myths about teen drug use.

"You always hear that one warning sign parents should look for are bad
grades at school, especially from someone who has done well before," Joseph
says. "That may be true in some cases but I know some folks who are regular
users who make straight A's. Their parents don't have a clue."

And it's not just kids from the poor side of the tracks who are using.

"I'd say it's really more of the rich kids," James says. "They've got the
money to spend. I'd sell to them. But drug use doesn't know classes, color
of skin, male or female. Everybody is involved."

And everybody can score.

"Drugs are easy to get," Joseph says, "really easier for a teen than
alcohol or tobacco. A lot of kids around Columbus use marijuana. You can
get it around schools with no problem. I did."

One sign that someone might be involved with drug use, say the boys, is if
the child is spending a lot more time sleeping, especially in the
afternoon. Look for bloodshot eyes. "If someone's using marijuana," Joseph
says, "they're probably wearing a lot of cologne to help kill the smell."

He says that parents should use a little more common sense. "If I go out
one night and say I'm going to eat and to a 7:30 movie, well, I'm probably
going to be home long before 12:30. But some parents don't think about that
at all."

Influences to use drugs come from different areas. Both say the media make
it seem cool to use. "They don't show those yellow teeth on those cigarette
ads," James laughs.

Joseph, enrolled in Alchemy because day treatment alone wasn't getting the
job done, started with alcohol when he was 12. "I just saw my dad drinking
beer with the guys and having fun so I thought I'd see about it."

Peer pressure, he says, is what led him to marijuana a year later.

"I really like it more than alcohol. I felt that it made me more sociable,"
Joseph says. "I also thought it made me more creative. That, it didn't."

Later came cocaine.

Arguments with his dad, his mother finding him in bed still drunk from the
night before, led to treatment.

"My friends, other users, were telling me I was doing too much," he says.

Did he believe them?

"No."

James' drug use began much earlier. He was 8, he says, when his father left
the family, leaving him the "man of the house."

"My older sisters were using drugs and having sex. I just wanted to be
close to them," James says. "I was never a big alcohol drinker but by 12
I'd tried LSD and by 14 ecstasy. I was depressed so I'd try to stay high.
That was a problem. There were times when I'd swear it was the last time
but I'd find an excuse to do it again. Friends who'd try to help, I just
pushed them away."

Finding cash to support a habit wasn't difficult. "I'd get $20 from my
parents to go to a show," Joseph says. "I'd buy some marijuana, sell it for
double and smoke the profits. I use my dad's ATM card to buy Christmas
gifts but keep some extra cash."

"I'd steal from my mom. I did some burglaries," James says. "I'm so ashamed
now."

Both say that parents need to be more aware of what their children are
doing, especially at night, and they need to spend more time talking with
them. Family dinners are a plus.

Right now, the boys consider those they're living with as family.

"That's what we call each other," James explains. "We're like brothers and
sisters. You have to think like that so nothing romantic occurs. We have
four girls here and 11 boys. Fifteen is the limit. We discuss all our
problems with the family. There are some disagreements but nothing violent.
I have found out a lot about myself since I've been here. The ones who stay
here want to get clean and stay that way. There are no locks on the doors
keeping you here. Some will graduate and won't stay clean. I want to be one
who does."

And he is at the stage of his therapy where he is allowed to go to public
school, but he doesn't. However, he does go home to Douglas County on some
weekends. He says he's been tempted there by drug users, old buddies, but
has refused and has made friends with those who'd stayed away from him in
the past.

There are four stages all have been through with drugs. They are, in order:
use, misuse, abuse, addiction.

There are, James says, four ways for it all to end. "Those are jail,
institution, recovery or death. I choose recovery."