Pubdate: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 Source: Daily News of Newburyport (MA) Copyright: 2005 Essex County Newspapers, Inc Contact: http://www.newburyportnews.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/693 Author: Angeljean Chiaramida Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) POOR SHOWING FOR TOWN DRUG FORUM HAMPTON - A forum planned by the Seacoast Community Safety Net drug prevention coalition last week was specially designed to advise parents on ways to prevent and detect drug use by their children. The program's information did exactly that. The problem was, most parents in the region were nowhere in sight. About 30 people attended the seminar, some of whom were members of the coalition itself. Of the 30, about 20 were parents taking advantage of the information presented by Lt. Eddie Edwards, the drug recognition specialist at the New Hampshire Liquor Commission. Edwards and other attendees commented on the small size of the audience. "We should have more people here," Edwards said during his presentation. "We should have more people invested in our communities' kids than this." John Welch, the Hampton parent of three sons, said he found the information Edwards passed on valuable, and he planned to "share that information with other parents." "I really thought there'd be more parents here than this," Welch added. Hampton Academy Junior High School Principal Fred Muscara welcomed the parents who came to the program presented at his school, but added his dissatisfaction at the number present. "I'm very disappointed in the turnout," Muscara said. "We're not being honest with ourselves." Along with being principal at Hampton's junior high, Muscara spent 10 years as an assistant principal at Winnacunnet High School. Muscara said Seacoast towns and their schools are like every community and school across the nation - drugs are a part of life, he said; thinking they aren't around children here is wishful, unrealistic and dangerous thinking. "We have to be honest with ourselves," Muscara said. "We're no different than any other community. We have problems with drugs." Edwards explained that tobacco, alcohol and marijuana were the most prevalent drugs used in the Seacoast area, according to statistics. He doesn't believe parents can consider their children's experimentation with these drugs as normal. Nor, he said, can parents think that their kids are immune to abusing these or stronger illegal drugs. "Most people think their kids' use of these drugs is a rite of passage," Edwards said, "but they shouldn't. It can lead to other things. ... We let it happen because we don't hold kids accountable." When kids become accustomed to the high of alcohol and marijuana, he said, "they may look for the next high, the next bigger, better high." That can be heroine, he said, or any of the other dangerous brands of stimulants, narcotics, hallucinogenic and barbiturates available that can kill them. And, he said, parents have to keep on their toes constantly because kids are more sophisticated these days. That sophistication, he said, is due to their ability to access drug-related information very easily. "I can give you all the street names of drugs here tonight," Edwards said, "and by tomorrow the names may change. ... Kids can go to a chat room on the Web and get new names of drug, learn how and where to get them, or even make them." Edwards said he considers the Internet the "Anti-Christ," because of its ability to educate kids about drugs. He believes parents need to monitor closely their children's use of the Internet, keeping the computer in plain view. Edwards also believes parents should check their children's rooms, backpacks and clothing. Checking for drugs has nothing to do with trust, he said, it has to do with love and wanting to keep kids safe, sometimes from themselves. Muscara gave parents an example of a recent local drug-related tragedy as he welcomed them. Then, he explained the need for constancy in their war against drug and alcohol abuse as he bid them farewell. "We had a wake last Monday night," Muscara said in his welcome, "an 18-year-old kid who overdosed on drugs. "It's up to us to be vigilant. ... Please, I want to tell you," he said at the program's end, emotion thick in his voice. "I don't want to go to another wake." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom