Are Your Kids On Drugs? How to Tell

Written By Patricia Rouzer

Ice

Crypto

Rib
Georgia Home Boy
Lady
Skunk
Mud
Mafioso monikers from a Sopranos script? If only.
They are a sample of the many, ever-changing street monikers for crystal meth, methamphetamine, Rohypnol (the date rape drug), GHB, cocaine, marijuana and heroin. And they are among the many and varied substances available for abuse almost everywhere, even in Carroll County.

Unfortunately, “Better Living through Chemistry” no longer describes the modern Carroll farmer looking for the next effective DuPont fertilizer. From cough medicine, beer and booze, to opiates, substances of all manner and means are available for abuse in our once bucolic county.

Those who moved to the “country” to protect their children from the ready availability of street drugs must be as vigilant as any urban parent for telltale and subtle signs of substance abuse, whether their children are in elementary school or college, say professional counselors who know the county’s drug scene.

Signs of the use and abuse of alcohol, prescription, over the counter or illicit drugs can be many and varied. And they can also be exquisitely subtle, said Patsy Schaffer, a licensed social worker with the Carroll County Youth Services Bureau.

“It isn’t always easy to know what causes a change in a child’s behavior,” said Schaffer. Sleeping excessively, missing school or after-school work, or a loss of interest in a sport or other activity the student used to enjoy, for example, may be signs of substance abuse. They can also be signs of another kind of problem, such as clinical depression. That is why parents who see sudden, significant, unexplained changes in the behavior of their children should have them professionally evaluated, she said.

Mark E. Yount, Substance Abuse Prevention Coordinator at Junction, a nonprofit prevention and treatment center in Westminster, echoed Schaffer’s advice. Yount, who is a certified prevention counselor and has worked in the field in Carroll for 35 years, takes a very hard line on the issue of suspected substance abuse in kids; whether it is alcohol, illegal or prescription drugs or over the counter medications.

“I always tell parents to confront their kids if they suspect they are abusing drugs or alcohol,” Yount said. He added that, in most instances even the most honest child will deny a parent’s accusation.

“That is why the best thing to do if you suspect that your child is abusing any substance is to have the child assessed by a professional,” he explained. “Kids will almost always deny using to a parent, but they will ultimately admit using to a counselor. Trained counselors know what to look for and how to get kids to come clean about their substance abuse.”

And unlike some parents, counselors are not inclined to turn a blind eye to what they have convinced themselves is a kid’s initial transgression; nor will they take the attitude that the child “will grow out of it.”

Experience has shown Yount that kids are much more likely to grow further into drug abuse, not grow out of it. “There is some disagreement about whether marijuana (one of the most-used drugs in the county) is a gateway drug; that is, a drug that kids start with and then progress into other drugs,” he said.

But increasingly, research points to marijuana leading users to other, harder drugs over time. Conversely, Yount said that in his experience, when marijuana use is discovered early and successfully treated, its use, and the subsequent abuse of other drugs is significantly less likely.

And while we’re on the subject of marijuanaÉthe Mary Jane kids consume today isn’t your daddy’s, “Cool, man,” high of the 1960s hippies. It is a much stronger, purer drug; a major reason that emergency room physicians now see more instances of marijuana users, even first time users, suffering from suicidal depression, Yount said.

An analysis of the under-19 population seen at Junction last summer and early fall shows that, although there are a number of other drugs used by youngsters in the county, marijuana and alcohol are still the most popular. They are readily available, and, in the case of alcohol, can be legally purchased by adults.

According to a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, alcohol is, indeed, a popularly abused substance. The nationwide study showed that more than 66.5 percent of 2006 high school seniors had abused alcohol during the year and predicted that 72.7 percent would abuse it sometime in their lifetime.

And then, of course, there are the media accounts of high school and college drinking bouts and demonstrations of young people drinking themselves into oblivion to celebrate reaching the age of majority. Yount added that reports that have crossed his desk show an increase in the incidence of alcohol poisoning cases seen in the nation’s emergency rooms, as well as deaths from alcohol poisoning in young people.

In many homes accessibility to alcohol is as near as the family’s liquor cabinet. And perhaps its ready availability accounts for the fact that Junction counselors have seen children as young as six brought in for alcohol use. In some homes parents allow their child to drink in their presence, an act that is legal in the State of Maryland.

“What is not legal is allowing someone else’s child to drink in your home,” he said. “Unfortunately that law says nothing about how much a child can be allowed to drink.”

Yount believes it is a bad idea to let underage kids drink under any circumstances. If your child challenges you with, “Well, you drink,” the answer should be “it’s legal for me to drink, it’s against the law for you to drink.” He urges parents to know what and how much is in the family’s liquor supply and to monitor it on a regular basis.

Ditto the family medicine cabinet. Today it is often the repository for a variety of potent tranquilizers, pain killers, sleeping pills and other pharmaceutical delights that give prescribed relief from a variety of ailments. But they can also provide the adolescent adventurer with a cornucopia of chemically-induced buzzes and blitzes.

Yount noted that prescription drugs have become a favorite among youngsters experimenting with drugs. “Some of them think that because these drugs are prescribed by a doctor, they can’t hurt you,” he said.
If all this makes you think that you shouldn’t trust your child implicitly; well, maybe you shouldn’t. Or at the very least you should be very vigilant. Not because your kid is bad, but just because he or she is a kid, and subject to a variety of things, not all of which are within his or her control.

To wit: Current research shows that the portion of the human brain that governs impulse control is not fully developed until a person is about 25 years old; much older than was previously thought. For this reason, youngsters and young adults may succumb to a variety of unwise and potentially harmful temptations, including substance abuse.

And then there is peer pressure; pervasive and powerful in the younger set. “Kids want to be accepted; they want to belong,” said Yount. And while drug and alcohol abuse can produce some pretty unacceptable results, being part of the crowd has a potent allure.

“A kid told me about how somebody got so drunk at a party that they got sick and threw up, and everyone at the party followed them into the bathroom to watch,” he said. Not a pretty picture to be sure, but a sure sign to that youngster that his exercise in excess was acceptable by that all-important jury of his peers.

Together, poor impulse control and peer pressure can produce a kind of “Jackass” syndrome in which, like feckless participants in the popular television show, kids participate in a variety of extremely ill-advised and often downright dangerous behaviors just for the fun of it, without regard to the consequences.

Yount points out that our society, as reflected in the media, has come to value risk as entertainment. Nowadays, risk is the ultimate cool; the riskier something is, the cooler it is, particularly in the young mind. If you doubt it, just take a look at the list of television reality and sports offerings, from a variety of extreme athletics to “Survivor” and “Jackass” and all of the gut-wrenching, dangerous doings by “real people” in between.

In addition, on television and in movie theaters, drug use is a common theme, often attractively portrayed. “’That 70s Show’ was very entertaining, but it did a lot to promote marijuana and alcohol use,” he said.
Part of adolescent risk-taking may stem from a young person’s sense of immortality and a total disregard for the potential consequences of the behavior. And parental ignorance or indifference is very helpful to kids ready to leap headfirst into dangerous behaviors of all kinds.

Yount advises parents to stay abreast of the current drug lingo. “They need to know the terms kids use for drugs, and that isn’t easy. The names change frequently and there are often several terms for one drug,” he said.

And by all means, don’t assume you know what a word, used in a strange context means. Case in point: Pharming parties are popular among youngsters. That’s pharming with a ph, as in pharmacopeia, not an f. Pharming parties have nothing to do with Future Farmers or 4-H.

“At pharming parties kids grab some prescription drugs from the family medicine chest and bring them to the party,” said Yount. “They dump all the pills together and everybody takes some and swallows them,” he explained. “It is dangerous and, if the wrong drugs come together, it can be fatal.”

The dangers extend to over the counter drugs as well. “Robotripping” is considered a fun ride by some youngsters who gulp bottles of the nasty-tasting cough medicine Robitussin to get a buzz from its active ingredient, dextromethorpan. They take massive doses of the cough suppressant without regard for the excessive doses they are also getting of the medication’s other active ingredients–ingredients that can produce serious side effects, such as liver damage.

The bottom line is that with peer pressure, the ready availability of almost any kind of pharmaceutical or alcohol and a lapse of still-developing impulse control, even good kids can make bad choices.

So what is a parent to do? The answer is painfully simple, said Yount. Be a responsible parent, even when it makes you unpopular with your kid.

“Parents need to know what their kids are doing and who they are doing it with,” said Yount. He added that smart parents call the parents of the kids holding parties to make sure the parties will be adequately chaperoned. Some have been known to drop in on the party, just to make sure everything is copacetic. “They aren’t afraid to act like responsible parents, even if their kids are embarrassed,” he said.

The counselors at Junction regularly talk to the kids they treat about what their parents should do to help them. “I’ve heard more than one kid say, ÔI have enough friends, I want my parents to act like parents,’” he said.

That means, said Yount, setting standards of behavior for kids and explaining exactly what the consequences for breaching those standards will be before those behaviors happen. And, perhaps more important, if and when the time comes, it means consistently applying those consequences.

“Kids need to know that their actions and decisions have consequences. They need to know what the rules are. They need to know what the consequences will be for breaking the rules and they need to understand that those consequences will be consistently enforced,” he said. “They need to know you are their parent, not their buddy. They need to know you are as good as your word.”