AHS Views

You would think that schools would be a relatively safe place when it comes to drugs and alcohol. At the very least, you would expect that if you can educate and protect your kids from other kids who drink and take drugs, and sell them, you wouldn’t have much to worry about. And if you can stop them from drinking and taking drugs early in life, there’s a far less chance you’ll have to find alcohol or drug addiction help for them when they get older.

But, unfortunately, protecting your kids from other kids who drink and take drugs is not the only problem – even teachers sometimes give student alcohol and drugs.

Almost every week in the news you see teachers involved with selling drugs to students.

This week it was a special education teacher (of all things) who was also a softball coach. A woman.

According to the report: “This was all after hours, off school property. It was with the presence of this teacher on a couple of occasions and then also at another third location where the teacher was actually given the money and brought alcohol and then also was there while alcohol was being consumed by these minor students,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.

One of the parents found text messages between their daughter and the teacher and reported it to the authorities. After investigation, the teacher was charged with five different offenses. She has now resigned and is awaiting trial – out on $5,000 bail.

Another report was about a teacher addicted to heroin. Another woman, and only 25 years old. She and a partner stole 22 computers from Pittsburgh’s Creative and Performing Arts high school to buy drugs.

She wasn’t caught until she and the same partner, an ex-boyfriend, tried to rob a bank. She then confessed to the computer thefts as well as some thefts of personal items from neighbor’s homes.

We used to be able to look up to teachers. They were the go-to people when there was any trouble. And they could be depended upon to set a good example to our kids. Now we know that they might need drug rehab as badly as some of their students – or worse.

Some teachers in universities and colleges even condone the use of prescription drugs – so called ‘study drugs’ like Adderall and Ritalin.

So when you’re educating your kids about drugs, don’t just paint the picture of drug dealers and drug users being unsavory characters that hang out in dark alleys.

Drug abusers come in all shapes and sizes, and from every walk of life.

Kids who drink a little or take drugs are much more likely to use them as much or even more when they go to university or college. Alcohol, and some drugs, are so acceptable in colleges that they are encouraged by the culture to step things up. As they do so, they’re even more likely to become heavy drinkers and alcoholics when they get out of school and a significant percentage of them will need professional alcohol or drug addiction help to quit.

Fortunately, many universities and colleges are now offering alcohol and drug education. University of Western Washington is one of the latest to step up to the plate and offer these services for all students, including those who have just arrived.

They will also soon be putting up ‘informative’ posters around their campus and on student doors and will have advisers going to classrooms to talk to the new students.
They’re basing this on a study done about 10 years ago – the actions done included putting door-knockers on dorms and ads in a campus newspaper. It reduced alcoholism by 20 percent over the three years that the campaign ran.

It’s too bad that school resources, which are often short to begin with, have to be spent on this kind of deterrent – parents are paying for their kids to go to college for an education that will set them up to do well in their life careers, not to get them to stop drinking or not get caught up in the drinking culture in their school.

But, really, it’s going to come down to the parents. Parents have to be aware that they have to handle the problem well before university comes around.

The younger kids start to drink, the higher the chances they’ll continue.

If you can keep them from drinking while in their early and mid-teens, the chances of them remaining sober are 50% greater than if they drank or took drugs at that age.

If you can keep them from drinking in high school, there’s less chance they will fall prey to the alcohol culture when they get into college.

And, if they can avoid getting into the alcohol or drug culture in college, they’re less likely to drink when they leave.

But it’s really vital that parents start this at a very young age. Kids are exposed to drinking and drugs at a very young age; they need to be prepared. They need to already understand the dangers of what they would be getting into if they drank or took drugs BEFORE they are offered them.

There are many resources available to help parents educate their kids – just look online for alcohol or drug education and the info will be there.

And if you can’t keep them from drinking or taking drugs, you must get them into a good drug or alcohol rehab program as soon as possible – one that will give them that education, and get down to the bottom of why they’re taking drugs or drinking in the first place, and help them with those issues so they can stop – regardless of their environment.

Of course, one of the best ways to learn is by example. If parents don’t use alcohol or drugs as solutions to problems or to ‘have a good time’, the kids are more likely to follow in their footsteps.

This applies to prescription drugs as well as street drugs. Prescription drug addiction is now just as common as with other drugs.

Bottom line: If you look for non-drug solutions to enhance your own physical and emotional well-being, and teach your kids to do the same, you’re off to a very good start.

Alcohol and drugs ruin lives. They are now so common and available that teaching your kids about them is a vital step in raising them.

If you’re thinking that all the college kids taking Adderall and other stimulants as study drugs are sincerely trying to get more out of their education, check out the recent statement made by a University of Massachusetts sophomore:

“I love Adderall,” she said. “I love it. I can write papers in, like, an hour and a half; I don’t eat all day and then I’ll smoke weed, get really retarded, and it’s so fun.”

When asked if she was worried about it being habit forming, she replied that she was not. “If I had a test, I’d take it a couple times a week,” she said. “But if not then I’d smoke weed a lot.”

I would bet that the parents who read the news story the above quotes come from are probably hoping desperately that this is not their daughter.

A director in the Student Health Services at the university tells us how she would deal with the situation: “I would say that using a drug to get your work done and then not eating might not be the healthiest way to go about doing something,” she said. “And then crashing from the use of the pills because, if you only use it sporadically, then yes, there’s a crash and that has some health consequences. And then if you’re going to follow that up by smoking marijuana, that has consequences.”

Yeah, that’s probably not the healthiest way to go about doing something.

As a parent, I would expect a more aggressive approach. In fact, if my daughter went to that school, I’d be on my way there right now to find out if she is involved in taking these drugs. And if she was, I’d be getting her some very good addiction help that would get to the bottom of why she is using drugs as a solution to problems in life.

She may not be addicted yet, but if she sees drugs as a solution, she is likely to continue using them as she gets older and could eventually have a serious and dangerous problem. Now is the time for drug rehab.

Matt Stevens, a British soccer player who was due to play in the 2011 World Cup games in New Zealand, was suspended for taking drugs. He’ll get the addicton help he needs, but since his suspension could be for as long as two years, there’s not much hope he’ll be able to play by that time.

The coach believes it’s due to becoming a celebrity. It’s true that being a celebrity opens doors that may otherwise have been closed, and there may be more temptations – more invitations to take drugs, spending more time in drug-oriented environments – you don’t have to be lined up to play in the World Cup to be offered drugs or to be a celebrity.

Playing football in college, for example, opens you up to the same temptations, and the same celebrity, even though it’s on a smaller scale. If you’re on a popular team, you’re going to be adored by fans and they’ll try to get hooked up with you one way or another – sometimes it’s with an offer of drugs.

In either case - and parents whose kids are going off to (or are in) college and will be (or are) ‘on the team’ should pay special attention to this – the person has to be prepared.

If your son, or daughter, is already taking drugs prior to going to college they should get prepated by getting addiction help services before they go. They already have problems that are driving them to drugs and those problems are likely to get worse in college where the environment is even more challenging.

Treatment for drug addiction or abuse gets down to the bottom of why the person is taking drugs in the first place and addresses those issues so they are no longer a problem. So, when they are offered drugs in college, they’re more likely to be able to say no.

Parents hope that going to college will straighten their kids out. But exactly the opposite is often true. Any problems they have now will be magnified. Get addiction help before they go – don’t wait until the problem is worse.

The new National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) monitoring the future survey was released yesterday. It’s a survey of kids in grades 8, 10 & 12 about their drug use. I don’t know how many kids who were asked if they take drugs denied it, but over 15% said they’ve abused prescription and over-the-counter drugs. One out of six – scary.

An article on JoinTogether.com made the point that authorities think the prescription drug abuse trend is going to be a hard trend to fight since most kids get them from their family and friends. 40% said they take their parents’ old prescription drugs that are still in the medicine cabinet. It’s not the usual place police would look for illegal activity.

While this is no surprise to us – it will probably shock parents. I would hope it will be enough of a shock to get rid of those drugs one way or another.

But prescriptions are expensive. There’s a tendency to hang onto them in case you need them again.  In that case, the best thing to do is lock them up.

Parents should realize that if one in six kids is doing this – their own kids are going to come in contact with them. There’s no guarantee they’ll refuse the drugs when offered.

Many a good family, with good kids who are apparently happy and doing well in life, find themselves needing addiction help for their son or daughter. These days, more kids are likely to experiment with prescription drugs than marijuana or any illegal drug.

Keep an eye on your kids, and talk to them about the dangers of prescription drug addiction and all the horrible side effects – including overdose and death – and if they need help, contact Addiction Help Services to find a program that works for your situation.

Some parents think they can’t do anything about drugs in schools – and the dangers they pose for their own kids. But taking action can help. Here’s the story of a woman who made a phone call about drug use to a local school. Her suspicions were followed up on, a search was done, and 10 kids were busted with stashes of prescription drugs and illegal substances. It was the school’s drug ring.

That one phone call is going to prevent prescription drug addiction (and other drug problems but, really, prescription drug addiction is the most prevalent), drug-related crime, and probably a few overdoses, deaths, injuries and illnesses.

I would hope the kids who were busted will get addiction help as well. The bust might also save their lives.

We recently had a rash of vandalism on our property. We knew who it was – a gang of kids that went to the school down the street. They stole a kids bike and threw it at our car – making a horrible mess – they knocked over our mailbox and punched dents in it, the broke our sprinkler heads. And a few other things. We knew when they passed by and waited on the street and confronted them. A few of our neighbors, whose property had also been vandalized, joined us. They stood in front of their property. We also went to the school and spoke with security – they knew who the kids were. They already had a reputation. And we called the police, who actually came and parked across from our house when the kids were due. The vandalism stopped. But, that’s what it took.

Taking action works. 

If you want to protect your kids, take action. And if they already have a problem, get them the addiction help services they need.