Pubdate: Fri, 18 Apr 2003
Source: Ledger-Enquirer (GA)
Copyright: 2003 Ledger-Enquirer
Contact:  http://www.l-e-o.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/237
Author: Larry Gierer

TEENS IN DRUG REHAB SAY PARENTS SHOULD LOOK HARDER FOR SIGNS OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE

"If I ever have a kid, I'm going to kick down the bedroom door."

When it comes to fighting teen drug use, James Reed has an unusual 
suggestion for parents.

"If I ever have a kid," James says, "I'm going to kick down the bedroom door."

Not that he has anything against a little privacy, but James, 16, says a 
lot more is going on in some of those bedrooms than parents would imagine.

His mother found a bag filled with a pound of marijuana.

"I told her," he says, smiling, "that I was just holding it for a friend."

James, from Georgia's Douglas County, is a drug abuser. He is one of 15 
teens currently enrolled in the Alchemy program operated by New Horizons 
Community Service Board in Columbus.

Alchemy is a residential therapeutic community that provides a highly 
structured recovery environment for drug-addicted adolescents. Some of the 
teens who live in the dormitories have had trouble with the law and have 
failed other treatment programs.

Alchemy provides a homebound school program, counseling, recreational 
activities, coping skills groups, AA meetings and crisis management, as 
well as substance abuse education.

The first phase is an in-house emphasis on the development of 
responsibility, emotional freedom and health relationships. "Everything you 
need to know about drugs you learn there," James says, "but there's still 
more to learn."

The second phase is about further development of responsibility in an 
educational and work setting. It works on finding healthy alternatives to 
addictive habits.

"It's very strict," James says, "a lot more structured than other programs 
I've been around."

Those who come to Alchemy -- most are court ordered -- stay for a minimum 
of nine months and some stay as long as 15.

James, who has been in and out of several rehabilitation programs, has been 
in this one for almost nine months. He says it has helped him where others 
failed.

One of his friends inside is Columbus' Joseph Miller, 16, a former student 
at Pacelli. He's been in Alchemy for three months. He, too, feels good 
about his progress. "It feels good to be sober," he says.

Some of the Alchemy kids, Joseph says, do volunteer work in the community 
and speak to groups about drug use.

The two are quick to dispel myths about teen drug use.

"You always hear that one warning sign parents should look for are bad 
grades at school, especially from someone who has done well before," Joseph 
says. "That may be true in some cases but I know some folks who are regular 
users who make straight A's. Their parents don't have a clue."

And it's not just kids from the poor side of the tracks who are using.

"I'd say it's really more of the rich kids," James says. "They've got the 
money to spend. I'd sell to them. But drug use doesn't know classes, color 
of skin, male or female. Everybody is involved."

And everybody can score.

"Drugs are easy to get," Joseph says, "really easier for a teen than 
alcohol or tobacco. A lot of kids around Columbus use marijuana. You can 
get it around schools with no problem. I did."

One sign that someone might be involved with drug use, say the boys, is if 
the child is spending a lot more time sleeping, especially in the 
afternoon. Look for bloodshot eyes. "If someone's using marijuana," Joseph 
says, "they're probably wearing a lot of cologne to help kill the smell."

He says that parents should use a little more common sense. "If I go out 
one night and say I'm going to eat and to a 7:30 movie, well, I'm probably 
going to be home long before 12:30. But some parents don't think about that 
at all."

Influences to use drugs come from different areas. Both say the media make 
it seem cool to use. "They don't show those yellow teeth on those cigarette 
ads," James laughs.

Joseph, enrolled in Alchemy because day treatment alone wasn't getting the 
job done, started with alcohol when he was 12. "I just saw my dad drinking 
beer with the guys and having fun so I thought I'd see about it."

Peer pressure, he says, is what led him to marijuana a year later.

"I really like it more than alcohol. I felt that it made me more sociable," 
Joseph says. "I also thought it made me more creative. That, it didn't."

Later came cocaine.

Arguments with his dad, his mother finding him in bed still drunk from the 
night before, led to treatment.

"My friends, other users, were telling me I was doing too much," he says.

Did he believe them?

"No."

James' drug use began much earlier. He was 8, he says, when his father left 
the family, leaving him the "man of the house."

"My older sisters were using drugs and having sex. I just wanted to be 
close to them," James says. "I was never a big alcohol drinker but by 12 
I'd tried LSD and by 14 ecstasy. I was depressed so I'd try to stay high. 
That was a problem. There were times when I'd swear it was the last time 
but I'd find an excuse to do it again. Friends who'd try to help, I just 
pushed them away."

Finding cash to support a habit wasn't difficult. "I'd get $20 from my 
parents to go to a show," Joseph says. "I'd buy some marijuana, sell it for 
double and smoke the profits. I use my dad's ATM card to buy Christmas 
gifts but keep some extra cash."

"I'd steal from my mom. I did some burglaries," James says. "I'm so ashamed 
now."

Both say that parents need to be more aware of what their children are 
doing, especially at night, and they need to spend more time talking with 
them. Family dinners are a plus.

Right now, the boys consider those they're living with as family.

"That's what we call each other," James explains. "We're like brothers and 
sisters. You have to think like that so nothing romantic occurs. We have 
four girls here and 11 boys. Fifteen is the limit. We discuss all our 
problems with the family. There are some disagreements but nothing violent. 
I have found out a lot about myself since I've been here. The ones who stay 
here want to get clean and stay that way. There are no locks on the doors 
keeping you here. Some will graduate and won't stay clean. I want to be one 
who does."

And he is at the stage of his therapy where he is allowed to go to public 
school, but he doesn't. However, he does go home to Douglas County on some 
weekends. He says he's been tempted there by drug users, old buddies, but 
has refused and has made friends with those who'd stayed away from him in 
the past.

There are four stages all have been through with drugs. They are, in order: 
use, misuse, abuse, addiction.

There are, James says, four ways for it all to end. "Those are jail, 
institution, recovery or death. I choose recovery."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens