Pubdate: Mon, 18 May 2009 Source: Jacksonville Daily News (NC) Copyright: 2009 Jacksonville Daily News Contact: http://www.jdnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/216 Author: Amanda Hickey and Molly K. Dewitt PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE AMONG JUVENILES ON THE RISE Prescription drug abuse among area juveniles is on the rise and local officials say solving the problem should be a community effort. In 2008, nearly 200 Onslow County juveniles were arrested on drug charges, according to data from the Onslow County Sheriff's Office and Jacksonville Police Department. So far in 2009, 157 juveniles have been charged with drug offenses. "We have been trying to curtail that by having the DARE program in our grade schools so that when they get up in the upper ages they will know better and know to say no to drugs," said Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown. "That is a key program that has been going on for some time." There were 70 possession of a controlled substance incidents at Onslow County Schools during the 2007-08 school year, according to information provided by Onslow County Schools. Information for the number of controlled substance incidents for the 2008-09 school year will not be available until March 2010 when the North Carolina Department of Instruction releases the data, Drop Out Prevention and Safe Schools Coordinator Keba Baldwin said. "The major issue is the unauthorized possession of prescription drugs," Baldwin said. Brown agreed saying the prescription drug problem "is a major uprise for not only the schools but for the state." "The abuse and the issuance of prescription drugs ... is one of the key problems in today's society and that is and has been on the increase for a while now in the schools," he sad. "Most of it has to do with prescription drugs that they have access to either through their parents or another family member in the house. Some of these drugs are drugs that the child themselves may be legally taking and then taking them to school and sharing them with their friends and selling them to their friends." Trudy Allen, a JPD detective in the juvenile division, said the accessibility of prescription drugs is a major part of the problem. "It's easily accessible; we all have drugs in the cabinet," she said. "Any child can go into the cabinet and get drugs that are readily available. ... They can easily go into mom and dad's medicine cabinet that may not be secured and take out whatever they want to use." In order to deter the presence of drugs on Onslow County School's campuses, prevention is key, Baldwin said. "It may be in the form of assemblies, small group or individual discussions about using, possessing or distributing drugs on campus," Baldwin said, explaining that it is also addressed in the healthy living curriculum. Intervention comes next, he said, explaining that it may involve small groups of students that may be "at risk of possessing, using or distributing drugs." "It takes a community to handle drug problems," Baldwin said. "The possession, usage and distribution of drugs do not always occur on school campuses. Students in negative environments outside of school have firsthand experience in these actions. Drug use is an issue at all socio-economic levels. The excessive use of prescription drugs affects all ages." Brown said he believes the solution does not lie with schools but, rather, at home. "I don't think the issue is for schools. There's a saying, 'It takes a village to raise a child.' I disagree with that. It takes parents to raise children," he said. "The discipline with drugs and whatnot starts at home. Schools can't raise the child. (Law enforcement) can't raise the child and we can't break habits or behaviors that the family doesn't get involved in and try to deter." Keeping the community's children safe is the bottom line, Allen said. "It's just a community effort for us to protect our children, we're all responsible and as long as we work together we have a common goal," she said. "We're all in it for the main goal and that's to protect the children." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake