Pubdate: Fri, 27 Feb 2009
Source: Ledger, The (Lakeland, FL)
Copyright: 2009 The Ledger
Contact:  http://www.theledger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/795
Author: Robin Williams Adams

EXPERT: DRUGS HAVE HIDDEN DANGER

Ex-DEA Agent Says Students Seek Good Feeling Without Knowing Risks.

LAKELAND | Drug use in the 1960s and 1970s was  rebellion, mood 
swings and psychedelic colors.

OxyContin, an addictive pain killer today's students  crush and 
swallow, has a different impact.

It gives them a sense of warmth, safety and well being,  they tell 
Bob Stutman, a former Drug Enforcement  Administration agent who paid 
a follow-up visit to  Lakeland on Thursday.

Stutman was in Lakeland last year at the behest of  local business 
leaders to interact with students and  parents at George Jenkins High School.

This year he was at Lakeland High School.

"It is no longer a sense of rebellion," Stutman said.  "It is using 
drugs to simply feel better in reality."

But students don't realize how dangerous prescription  drugs like 
that are, he said, just as some don't  realize what they take.

At Lakeland High, Stutman heard about drinking and  taking OxyContin 
or similar prescription drugs, with  marijuana appearing to come third.

He heard students describe "classic flashbacks but they  had no clue 
they were flashbacks because they didn't  know they were using LSD."

Students eat mushrooms they think give a natural high,  not knowing 
they're laced with LSD, he said, recalling  one who said "I thought I 
was going nuts."

Parents can't afford to ignore children's drug use or  the role they 
may play in causing it. The largest  predictor of whether a student 
will start long-term  alcohol or drug abuse is how much interaction 
their  parents have with them at the dinner table, Stutman  said.

Changes in drugs students use and why they use them  require changes 
in approach, he said, adding that he  recently quit working with a 
national group because it  continued looking to the past.

"They were dealing with the problems of the '70s and  '80s," he said. 
"I don't have time for that. I'm  dealing with kids who are dying now."

Thursday night, he spoke at Lakeland High about the  need to work 
together in explaining the dangers of  drugs in ways students can 
understand and respect.

He and Angie Ellison, executive director of the Drug  Prevention 
Resource Center, hope Lakeland High will  form parent and student groups.

Between Stutman's visits, the center's board has gone  through its 
own self-examination.

One outcome is a rebranding: The center is changing its  name to 
InnerAct Alliance.

For more information, Stutman can be reached at  863-802-0777.
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