WASTED YOUTH

Drugs And Alcohol Can Set A Tough Course

If Wayne Wirkkala could talk to Prince Harry, he would tell the young
British aristocrat to be careful, that the pot and the booze he was caught
using are like the bullets in Russian roulette. It's a game, Wirkkala would
say, that the teen does not want to lose.

Wirkkala knows. The Englewood resident's first drinking binge, at age 11,
led him down a dark, troubled road, from beer to pot to heroin to an adult
life of alcoholism. Today, the 50-year-old continues his fight for sobriety
in a treatment program.

"I've been struggling with alcohol and depression," said Wirkkala, whose
addiction took off when he was drafted into the military. "They kind of go
hand in hand."

Statistically, Prince Harry, whose recent partying made headlines, has a
better chance of coming up with an empty chamber than a bullet -- most drug
experimenters go on to live healthy lives. But the 17-year- old son of
Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana has boosted his chances fourfold
of joining the 10 percent of the population addicted to drugs or alcohol,
studies show. And he's raised the ante for dying of an accidental overdose
or being killed in a car accident. If he survives all that but goes on to
be a substance abuser, his brain and body are likely to suffer.

This tale of a prince has one certainty: Harry isn't alone.

"It's not a surprise that this kid used these drugs, because many kids do,"
said Tom Brewster, executive director of the University of Colorado's
Addiction Research and Treatment Services.

In a 2000 survey commissioned by the Department of Human Services, more
than 50 percent of Colorado 12th-graders reported having used marijuana and
84 percent said they had consumed alcohol. Both numbers exceeded U.S.
averages. Colorado generally ranks high in substance use, which experts
suspect is related to the state's high tourism and young, recreational
population, which boost alcohol consumption and liquor-store numbers.

While studies suggest teens increase their chances of addiction by
experimenting, Dr. Paula Riggs, a CU addiction expert, said that probably
has less to do with the drugs and more to do with the reasons teens began
using them: bad behavior, school difficulties, family troubles and
psychiatric illnesses.

Some kids' risk of addiction is increased by a genetic tendency toward drug
dependency, Riggs said. That doesn't mean that all kids with alcoholic
parents will become alcoholics, just that their chances are greater,
especially if their environment encourages the behavior or if they have
other risk factors, she said.

Wirkkala is a prime example.

"They were both alcoholics," he said of his parents. They always had beer
in the house. When he was drinking and smoking pot in high school, Wirkkala
said, he never thought about the consequences.

"It just made me feel good. It made the world go away," said Wirkkala, who
generally drank until he passed out.

Most teens drink and smoke marijuana today because those drugs are
accessible and not considered as dangerous as heroin or cocaine, Brewster said.

But addiction experts know these "softer" drugs can become gateways to the
"harder" substances. They also know firsthand that pot and alcohol are deadly.

"These kids get some of the really potent alcohols," said Scott Thoemke,
assistant executive director of the Arapahoe Douglas Mental Health Network.
"They have no idea what levels become lethal," he said, adding that he's
seen a recent increase in near-death alcohol- poisoning cases among teens.

Mixing drugs and alcohol with mental illnesses can be especially
destructive, leading to severe addiction problems and even suicide. "About
a quarter of my kids have a major depression along with their drug use,"
Brewster said. "That really complicates things."

These teens drink because they're depressed, and then they become more
depressed because they drink, Brewster said. Their chances to harm
themselves or others skyrocket, whether by getting behind the wheel of a
car or committing suicide, he said.

Automobile accidents and suicide are the top killers of U.S. teens.

If teen-agers survive the experimentation years but go on to become adults
who are either addicted to or abuse marijuana or alcohol, the price their
bodies pay can still be high, researchers are learning.

"These drugs are having effects on brains that are under construction,"
Riggs said. There is not enough research to know for sure what happens to
young users' brains in the long term, and each drug can have different
consequences.

"For instance, with Ecstasy, short-term chronic use even for a week or two
can cause brain damage that will show up seven years later," she said.

"With marijuana, we know for sure that it interferes with memory and with
cognition."

Studies have found that pot can jeopardize learning by preventing
information from being stored in a person's long-term memory.

Thoemke, who used multiple drugs as a teen and quit in college, said
marijuana also kills motivation. "It didn't help me academically at all,"
he said.

Alcohol, known for its damaging effects on the liver, also can destroy
brain cells, causing problems that might not be reversible with long- term
abuse.

Serious health consequences from drugs and alcohol generally result from
chronic, heavy abuse.

Wirkkala, whose longest period of sobriety since eighth grade was 20
months, said he tried to kill himself once by drinking and almost
succeeded, ending up in an alcoholic coma.

"When I came out of it, they said I fried my brain. I have learning
disabilities. I don't comprehend what I read. My spelling is atrocious. I'm
not sure if I could ever go back to school," he said.

His equilibrium also is so affected that he can barely climb stairs. "Last
week I fell down the stairs and injured my back," said Wirkkala, who is
unemployed, attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings -- sometimes twice a day
- -- and is undergoing treatment at the Arapahoe Douglas Mental Health
Network. He's been sober for eight months.

"I've had and lost so many jobs I can't count them," said Wirkkala, a
carpenter.

With marijuana, long-term use can cause some of the same kind of lung
damage as cigarettes, leading to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and
emphysema.

"Also, marijuana these days is generally more potent than it used to be in
the '60s, and many people do not realize that it's highly addictive," Riggs
said.

As with cigarette smoking, some lung damage can be reversed if a person
stops smoking pot, as can some of the cognitive impairments. But Riggs said
research is too new to know for sure how much brain damage is reversible.

Wirkkala is sure it's not worth the risk. He said he'd like to visit
schools and tell teens how abuse and depression have ruined his life.

His wife divorced him when his son and daughter were 8 and 5. His son ended
up in foster homes, but he stayed in touch with his dad. "He called me a
drunk and a loser. I've heard that so many times," said Wirkkala.

"I'd share my experiences and tell them what it cost me. I've lost
everything, sometimes including any ambition to try to get it back," he said.