Fighting Back: Part 5c

In Brief

BEER CANS, ANTENNAS AND THUMBS

People smoking crack, marijuana and some other drugs often use beer or soda
cans as pipes by punching tiny holes in them, several recovering addicts
say. Crushed cans or cans with holes in them with a chemical or pungent
odor can be a sign someone is using drugs.

Some people also use broken-off car antenna bases or pieces of glass to
smoke drugs. Another sign that someone is smoking drugs, recovering addicts
say, is raw, bleeding or scorched thumbs from cigarette lighters.

Mixed messages

On a recent morning, a South Mississippi radio station played a
public-service announcement warning youth of the dangers of drug use.

Only minutes later, the same station plays an advertisement for a local
"head shop" that specializes in pipes and other smoking paraphernalia. The
shop, the ad says, has the area's foremost experts who can help advise
people on how to pass employment drug-screening tests.

Pure ecstasy tough to find

Much of the ecstasy sold in South Mississippi is not pure. It is often cut
with crystal meth, heroin and other drugs.

Dr. Julie Teater, director of Gulf Oaks Professional Psychological
Services, said she has treated kids suffering from heroin withdrawal who
weren't aware that they had ever used heroin. Their bodys became addicted
to heroin because they ingested impure ecstasy.

Drug hierarchy

There is a hierarchy among drug abusers. For instance, people who use
powder cocaine tend to look down on those who use crack cocaine.

Teen-agers who abuse pot and alcohol scoff at teen-agers who use inhalants,
which is sometimes identified as something only poor kids do.

People who have wrecked their lives by abusing drugs will tell themselves
that they are not drug addicts because they don't "shoot up" their drugs
with hypodermic needles.

Pot more potent

Improved growing methods and cross-breeding have made marijuana a far more
potent drug than it was during the 1960s.

Hydroponic techniques, which are legitimately used to grow better fruits
and vegetables, provide marijuana plants with the perfect amount of light,
water, nutrients and carbon dioxide to produce a very potent drug.

School bus problems

In Harrison County schools, where high school children share bus rides with
elementary and middle school children, drug trading has become a problem.
Younger students trade their Ritalin prescription tablets to older students
for marijuana, said police assigned to the schools. This year, there have
already been several cases of drug trading or selling on school buses. Last
year, 13 students were involved in such trading when a middle school
student stole a parent's Xanax and distributed the prescription.