Fighting Back: Part 1b

MEDICINE CABINET, NOT DEALERS, MAY BE KIDS' SOURCE

The drugs easiest for young people to find are in their homes, in the
medicine cabinet.

"I was expecting to see kids using cocaine, ecstasy and crack - modern
drugs," said Shephanie Fontenot, a detective with the Long Beach Police
Department who spent eight months as a school drug officer at Long Beach
Middle School this year. "But what I'm seeing is kids with prescription
drugs, Ritalin and anti-depressants. They're trading them off at school."

Middle-school principals have told the Jackson County Children's Services
Coalition that prescription drug abuse is the biggest problem they have in
schools today, said coalition Director Kathy Best. Pills are hard for
schools to monitor.

A prescription-drug incident in Pass Christian last school year involved 10
children, ages 12, 13 and 14.

According to Pass Christian police and children involved, a 13-year-old boy
brought to school 90 Valiums, a sedative he had taken from a relative's
medicine cabinet. He handed them out. By the end of that day in November,
the school had sent three students to the hospital; parents had picked up
other students at the school and taken them to the hospital for examination.

While the first student was sent to the office by late morning, that
afternoon one groggy teen kept nodding out on the school bus, which had to
return to the middle school with some children still aboard. The teen was
taken to the hospital by ambulance.

More than 40 Valiums were found in the back of a Gameboy toy and 14 were
discovered in a wad of paper that had been passed from student to student
on the bus.

Police said charges are pending in Youth Court against the boy accused of
bringing the pills to school. But other students were suspended for
possession of the pills or sent to alternative school.

Information needed

Ronnie Storey, principal at Pass Christian Middle School, declined to talk
about the Valium incident in detail. He said it was unusual, and he hopes
it won't damage the school's reputation.

But the guardian of one child involved said she wished the school had been
more open about the incident, and called meetings to keep parents informed.

Providing better information to parents is one solution to the problem,
drug counselors and law enforcement officers say. Holding parents
responsible for what happens to their prescription medications is another key.

Experts recommend parents lock away their own medications and heavily
regulate the distribution of their children's, including drugs for
attention deficit disorder.

"Don't ask an eighth-grader, 'Did you get your pill?'

" said Lieutenant Windy Swetman, head of Harrison County's school-based
police. "He might get his pill and a few more."

"Parents have to watch things more carefully, even alcohol in the home,"
said Best, who works with teens in Jackson County and listens to their
stories of different types of drug abuse.

Extreme measures

Best recommends measures that might seem extreme, but she believes they are
necessary, especially if a parent suspects a child is misusing prescriptions.

"Look in their mouth and make sure they're swallowing their medication,"
she said. "They could be stashing it."

She also recommends parents check children's pockets when they come home
and, most importantly, stay in close touch with the school.

"If you send five pills in a bottle to school for your child to take, call
the school and make sure it got there. And make sure they were taken," she
said. "Don't just send a month's prescription."

Best said she has been discovering that teens and pre-teens are taking
over-the-counter drugs in large quantities to get high, which causes her
even more concern.

"The ones I talk with told me about a teen who took 21 Midol tablets," she
said. "They will misuse sinus medications and anti-depressants. You have to
monitor everything they have in their possession. Remember, Tylenol taken
in a large dose can fry your liver."

Best recommends that teens not have access to the family medicine cabinet.
There's no need for it, she said, with all the potentially dangerous
medications out today.

Tom Payne, Gulfport's senior city judge and a criminal justice professor,
said the reason there is a problem with drugs showing up in the schools is
because "we have a drug problem in society and the schools are just a
microcosm of society."

But he also said the youth drug problem cannot be painted with a broad
brush or addressed with one solution.

"We will have to find different solutions for different age groups and
different solutions for different kids," he said.

[sidebar]
Is Your Child Using Drugs?

Because mood swings and unpredictable behavior occur frequently in
adolescence, it is difficult to spot the warning signs of substance abuse.
However, if a child exhibits more than one of the following signs, it may
be an indicator of drug use:

- - Withdrawn, tired and careless about personal appearance.

- - Hostile and uncooperative, including lying and emotional outbursts.

- - A new group of friends whose identity is not shared with parents.

- - Relationships with family members deteriorate.

- - Grades slip in school; attendance becomes irregular.

- - Loses interest in hobbies, sports and other favorite activities.

- - Eating and sleeping patterns change.

- - Suddenly into borrowing money or an unexplained appearance of money.

- - Difficulty concentrating and lack of coordination.

- - Avoidance of anyone who might be confrontational.

- - Secretive phone conversations, hang-up phone calls, disappearance of
small household items or clothing.

- - The presence of pipes, rolling papers, lighters and eye drops.

- - Prescription drugs are missing.