SUBURBAN PARENTS CAUGHT OFF GUARD

Before she was old enough to drink, Katrina Miller, 21, was scoring "H" in
Dormont bars.

Up to 10 packets a day, Miller was scrounging for heroin on the North Side.
The Mt. Lebanon High School graduate who taught little girls to dance said
she was reduced to stealing meat from grocery stores, then selling it to
taverns.

A task force drawn from police agencies throughout the South Hills closed in
on Miller and her friends nearly a year ago. Then came a few days in jail,
then court-supervised rehabilitation.

Through it all, Susan Miller stood by her daughter. She sent Katrina to a
drug-treatment center, but once Katrina got out, she started using again.
Susan pressed on and got the help that Katrina needed to finally kick the
habit.

But the flow of cheap heroin throughout the South Hills remains a constant
concern.

Susan Miller's warning to other moms: Stand by your kid, but be firm. Do
everything you can to keep them off drugs and out of the morgue.

"What happened is that there are no more relapses for Katrina. She knows.
The next one could mean her death, and she knows that, too," Susan Miller
said. "She's my daughter. And I want her to stay my daughter."

Doctors, police and paramedics told the Trib the problem is that suburban
parents don't know the warning signs of drug abuse. As the tentacles of
heroin worm through bedroom communities, farming hamlets and college towns,
veterans in the war on drugs say moms and dads are ill prepared for smack.

"Ninety percent of our drug dealers are from Pittsburgh," said Robert
Redlinger, the most senior detective with the Washington Police Department.
"They come down here (Washington County), hook up with young women. They
shack up, and then we're stuck with them. Now, it's a little town with
big-city problems, and it's going to get worse.

"Parents are smarter about drugs in the city. A lot of people are crack
heads, so parents know what to look for," Redlinger said. "But the suburbs
are different. Kids have more money. Parents aren't street-smart. They don't
know what to look for."

And even when suburban parents know all too well, they still don't spot the
signs until it's too late.

To keep her four kids away from the scourge of street narcotics on
Pittsburgh's South Side, Debby O'Malley, 46, moved to the northern suburb of
Avalon nearly two decades ago.

In time, O'Malley recalled, she became known within the Northgate Parent
Teacher Organization as "Super Mom" - the lady always on hand to sell hot
dogs at baseball games; the person who always scolded other parents for
giving booze to football stars.

Like many suburban baby boomers growing up in a new America of drug abuse,
however, O'Malley said she now realizes she should have been scolding
herself. On the outside the perfect wife and mother, O'Malley, in reality,
had been using drugs since she was 12.

She made her kids urinate in a cup so that she could pass drug screenings
for new jobs. Her children would tag along to score heroin because they made
good lookouts for the cops.

Four years ago, O'Malley was down to 72 pounds - shooting cocaine in the
restaurant she managed at night, bagging painkillers with forged
prescriptions by day. Clean and sober now, she looks back at the lost years
in the suburbs and concedes it's no wonder her four kids - 22, 18, 17 and 14
- - have been in rehab.

Three are on, and off, heroin. The youngest, well, she doesn't know.

"On Sundays, I'd take my little girl to the Steelers games. We'd take all
the pop cans people left - my little baby and me picking them up. She
thought it was fun. It was a game to her. She didn't notice all the people
looking at us, feeling sorry for us.

"Not a Sunday goes by, if the Steelers are home, that I don't cry because of
what I did to my baby. We were bagging cans, like bums, so I could take them
to the junk yard on Monday for enough money to get my fix. I put my baby
through that. Can you imagine the shame?"

How to help your kids

Drug treatment experts say teen drug use can be hard to spot. Many of the
warning signs indicating drug abuse mirror the emotional roller coaster of
adolescence. But there are things you can do to keep your kids off drugs,
according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America:

1. Be your kids' greatest fan. Compliment them on all of their efforts, the
strength of their character, and their individuality.

2. Get you kids involved in adult-supervised after-school activities. Ask
them what interests them and contact the school to see what's available.

3. Help your kids develop tools they can use to get out of drug- related
situations. Let them know they can use you as an excuse: "My mom would kill
me if I did that!"

4. Get to know your children's friends and their parents. Call them and
check to make sure they share your views on drugs. Steer your kids away from
pals who use drugs.

5. Call kids' parents if their home is to be used for a party. Make sure the
party will be free of drugs and alcohol and supervised by adults.

6. Set curfews and enforce them. Let kids know the consequences of breaking
curfew.

7. Encourage open dialogue with your children about their experiences. Make
sure your kids understand they can ask you anything - and that you'll give
them an honest answer.

8. Set a no-use rule for alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.

9. Sit down to dinner with your kids at least once a week. Use the time to
talk - don't eat in front of the TV.

10. Get - and stay - involved in your children's lives.