ANTI-DRUG EFFORT AIMS TO ENLIGHTEN PARENTS

Ozaukee schools, law agencies, task force join forces to set up meeting

For the first time on a countywide basis, Ozaukee County parents and
teachers are being urged to attend a drug awareness meeting to learn how to
deal with the newest illegal drugs that their children may be using.

Law enforcement officers say students are using heroin and Ecstasy.
Students, as early as the fifth grade, are being exposed to alcohol, tobacco
and marijuana.

Two young people in recent months have died from drug overdoses. Christopher
Koleski, 15, of Cedarburg was found dead in April in a Milwaukee house with
heroin and other drugs in his system.

Bill Counard, a 23-year-old West Bend native, was found dead from a heroin
overdose in a Newburg house in May.

Drug Awareness Night will be held at the Grafton High School Field House
from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 11.

All the public school districts and law enforcements agencies in Ozaukee
County are sponsoring the meeting, along with the Ozaukee County Anti-Drug
Task Force.

"This is part of the community policing stance that Ozaukee County is
taking," said Mario Valdes, the Mequon Police Department's juvenile and
school liaison officer.

"The parents need to be educated before they try to understand or to prevent
their children from using drugs," he said.

Speakers are expected to dwell on a tough-love approach to combating drug
abuse, said Brenda Stanislawski, executive director of the Ozaukee Council
Inc.

"Parents worry so much today about being in their children's way," she said.
"They want to be their child's friend. But they really should be in the way.
Parents are most effective when they supervise their kids."

A child may be doing well academically and involved in extracurricular
activities, she said, but still be experimenting with drugs.

"They sort of look like mini adults," she said, "and they will say, 'Hey,
Mom and Dad, I'm doing great. Can't you trust me?' So parents back off."

Participants will get information about drugs that they may not be familiar
with, such as Ecstasy and OxyContin, and will be told what drugs are readily
available in the county.

"There isn't a fence around Ozaukee County," Stanislawski said, and the
county is experiencing the same problems that other more urban counties
have.

"We want to give parents the information they need to be able to communicate
with their kids about drugs," she said. "Research has shown that parents are
the most influential in their children's lives. More so than their peers."

The Ozaukee Council is a non-profit agency under contract with the county to
provide prevention, intervention and referral services for alcohol, tobacco
and drug-related issues.

Valdes said baby boomers who tried marijuana in the 1960s may think that
their children would try a drug once or twice, "and that would be the end of
it."

"Drugs are nothing like those in the 1960 or '70s," he said. "They're so
potent."

Ecstasy, for example, is being used by children because it makes them feel
mellow and sensitive. But the danger is that Ecstasy increases a user's
heart rate and blood pressure.

"It's very addictive," he said, "because they get such a good high from it.
After it leaves their system, they want to continue with that feeling."

Ecstasy leads to heart attacks, seizures and strokes among young people who
would never get that normally, he said.

OxyContin, a 12-hour pain killer, is another drug young people are trying,
Valdes said.

He urged parents to attend the drug awareness meeting.

"If the parents love their children, they will attend this meeting," he
said, "or they will educate themselves about drugs."