The Invisible Drug Culture

The invisible drug culture
By LAURA CLARK/The Daily Journal

Thursday, March 23, 2006 -

Cocaine, Ecstasy, LSD and a slew of prescription drugs are readily available on the average high school campus, according to teens and youth workers.

While the teens labeled “stoners” are easily recognizable, the “invisible drug culture” is not, said Joanna Olson, Mendocino County Youth Project program director for Project Share and School Based Services.

The Mendocino County Youth Project runs the teen crisis line countywide. Crisis workers receive calls weekly regarding issues such as drug and alcohol use, homelessness, grief, family conflict, peer conflict, runaways, etc.

“Anything that a teen can experience, we get calls about ’cause that is what we do,” Olson said. “But in the last two years we have become more and more aware of the invisible drug culture that exists in highly successful students,” she said, noting these students range in age from freshmen to seniors, and many of them come from stable families. Many students know this invisible culture exist, but few of these users are recognized by authority figures, according to Olson.

“We have a fine pulse on youth activity and they self-identify to us,” she said, noting the students might get in trouble and they either call the crisis line, or their family or friends do. Many of the parents who call the confidential crisis line don’t want their children to be in the “known system,” she said, so that’s why they don’t call the police or tell school staff.

“The invisible drug culture that my staff has become aware of is that which exists among highly successful students, who are successful academically, socially and in extracurricular school activities. Some even have jobs and many are college-bound.

“What makes them invisible is they aren’t in trouble in any area; they can’t be identified as standing out by having school problems, and most have fewer problems at home.

“What we have found is that there’s a great percentage of these students using prescription drugs, cocaine and party drugs, as well as alcohol and pot. Alcohol and pot were the gateway substances that they used prior to their use of prescription drugs and cocaine.

“What we have also found in our work with youth is that the substances are readily available on campus — not just at Ukiah High, but at Willits, Laytonville, Fort Bragg and Mendocino high schools too,” she said.

Asked approximately how many Ukiah High students are using drugs, Olson said: “It’s not an epidemic; it’s a trend on the rise.”

Asked if there were more than 50 students using these drugs, she said, “Yes, definitely. We estimate 50 or more use habitually, and double that number, or more, use recreationally.”

Beyond the county line

Experimentation with prescription drugs goes far beyond Mendocino County, however.

In a recent online article titled “American Kids Getting High on Prescription Drugs,” Boston author Jason Szep wrote: “Teenagers are increasingly experimenting with legal drugs like OxyContin, widely known as Hillbilly heroin,’ and Vicodin, often bought online or taken from medicine cabinets, even before trying marijuana or alcohol, health officials say,” he wrote, quoting several from around the country, including Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an arm of the government’s National Institute of Health, who said “Last year, painkillers were the No. 1 drug for people taking drugs for the first time.”

“Among the most dangerous experiments are pharming parties,’ where children meet after scouring family medicine cabinets and dumping what they find into a bowl. They stir things up, dip in, randomly pluck drugs out and swallow them,” Szep states.

“They literally do not know what they are taking,’ said Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital in Boston. They can overdose or take medications that counteract each other or interact with each other in dangerous ways. When you combine the anti-anxiety drug Klonopin for example with alcohol, they work in the same way and can very much lower the threshold at which you stop breathing,’” Rich said.

A glimpse of Ukiah High

Several Ukiah High School students, speaking Tuesday on condition of anonymity, echoed Olson’s sentiments about drug use locally.

Of the almost three dozen interviewed, all said marijuana was easily accessible on campus. About two-thirds of the randomly selected interviewees said they know someone using — or had been approached by someone wanting to sell — prescription drugs. A few students said cocaine was a big issue and some students were reluctant to answer one way or the other, when asked if drugs were easy to obtain on the high school campus.

“Oxy is really big, and Vicodin and painkillers in general,” said a sophomore girl. “Some students even go off campus at lunch and shoot heroin and come back to school, and teachers don’t even notice,” she said.

“Half the junior class is on Coke,” said a girl with her. “Mostly girls, because of the whole skinny pressure thing,” she said, noting she would never admit this if the interview weren’t anonymous.

Asked if anyone had ever offered them drugs, these girls, and a friend with them, all said “yes” and noted most of the offers come from people they know.

And, said one of them, “You can just go to the bathroom and say, Hey do you know where it is?’ Some people even hide it in the library and say, Hey, it’s on this shelf.’” Besides, she added, “You just know the certain people that have some.”

A group of about a dozen freshman and juniors said they hadn’t been offered any drugs, but one student said she’s seen students taking drugs at school.

“I’ve seen it. I saw the kids taking pills in class.” Asked what kind of pills, she said, “I’ve heard Vicodin is really popular right now.”

“It’s really easy to get drugs at school,” said yet another group of ninth- and tenth-graders.

Asked how they knew this, one student said, “Because I’ve seen other students with cocaine and pills. They take out little bags and stuff.”

A junior boy said he, too, “knows people who sell it.” He said he’s been offered Norco, Vicodin and marijuana.

Three other juniors interviewed Tuesday said drugs are easy to find on campus. These students said cocaine is not popular, but pills are. Asked how they knew this, one said, “You just know people that do it.” A boy standing nearby said “it’s pretty easy” to find drugs on campus if you want to. “If I wanted to get some marijuana I know who to ask. … Muscle relaxers are also easy to get. … I could ask her and she’d ask somebody,” he said, as an example. “You can get anything you want; if you’ve got the money you can get it,” he said.

Some youth steal prescription drugs from family cabinets, Olson said. And, she said, drugs are also introduced to high schoolers by young adults who are out of the high school population at a party or via the dating scene. Older cousins and siblings, too, can be a source of drugs for a high school student.

Asked how teens can afford cocaine, Olson said: “A lot is free from older males to high school females. Secondly, students who can afford it are either employed or come from affluent families, or the teens who give it away come from money.”

Students are in denial that drug use is a problem, that they are dangerous, that they can get addicted, Olson said, noting this is pretty typical of teens because they often live in the here and now.

“They feel invincible and invulnerable. What scares them is meth, but they are not at all fearful of becoming addicted to prescription drugs or cocaine. In fact, some of the students who used cocaine daily didn’t think they had a problem,” she said.

Cocaine use, pill popping … “it’s there,” she said. “It’s invisible; the kids know about it, but the adults may only suspect. You can’t smell it on them, so what do you look for? … Changes in their behavior, weight and sleep pattern changes, maybe pupil dilation or constriction.

“There was a kid we worked with recently that was passing out at school. He was sent home and it was because he was pretty much ODing on prescription drugs. They were putting him to sleep; he could barely even walk. His parent called us ’cause he told her what he had been using.”

Ukiah High School Principal Ken Montoya said “if there is a problem” at the school, he wants to know about it so it can be addressed. Back in the ’80s when he worked in the Los Angeles school system, cocaine use was a huge issue, Montoya said.

“It messed up a lot of lives, but up here, if it is here, I would like to know and I would like to have a lot more input to do what we need to do to help kids and talk about the risks and the dangers. Cocaine is extremely addictive,” he said.

“I have heard about OxyContin and some of the students have been using that to get high; it’s very dangerous,” Montoya said, noting the district has taken its usual stand and those who get caught using are referred to Project Success Program — a joint venture with AODP and Ukiah High that provides drug and alcohol counseling for students.

Ukiah Police Capt. Trent Taylor said law enforcement is not aware of there being a specific problem at the high school. “Prior known incidents of hard drug use or anything to do with prescriptions has amounted to a very small number of students in the population as a whole,” Taylor said, noting Ukiah High School has almost 1,900 students.

However, he said, “I would encourage anyone aware of the problem existing to contact police so we can investigate it. We need specific, factual information to pursue.”

The Mendocino County Youth Project 24-hour crisis line is 463-HELP. Calls are confidential. Free educational materials are available by calling the MCYP at 463-4915.

Laura Clark can be reached at udjlc@pacific.net .