| US: The Pueblo Chieftain Online
Found: Sun May 11 16:51:12 2008 PDT
Source: Pueblo Chieftain (CO)
Copyright: 2008 The Star-Journal Publishing Corp.
Contact: newsroom@chieftain.com
Website: http://www.chieftain.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1613
Webpage: http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/05/...
Author: Nick Bonham
Newshawk: http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/
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The Pueblo Chieftain Online The Pueblo Chieftain OnlinePrint Version } New generation, new drug problems
By NICK BONHAM
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
May 11, 2008 12:32 am
Drug abuse has been a problem in Pueblo for decades. Many current societal problems are traced - fairly or unfairly - to the late 1960s, when a counterculture blossomed that embraced drugs.
Now, new difficulties have ensued. The worry is that high school students are ingesting pharmaceutical products, prescription drugs meant to mask pain, alleviate depression, boost energy or enable people to sleep.
This week, The Pueblo Chieftain will present a series of articles and statistics looking at the problems of young people living in a world that could be called Generation Rx.
A new generation of parents, well-versed in drug use whether by experimentation or knowing someone who does partake, also has more prescription medication around the house, often in easily accessible places.
Throw in the easy availability of drugs via the Internet, widespread access to alcohol and marijuana, the popularity of Ecstacy and other illegally manufactured substances, and the attitude that it's OK and Pueblo has a problem.
Generation RX
Abuse 'intense' among Pueblo youth
The pot is stronger, alcohol is more popular and, if that isn't enough, adolescents are exploring medicine cabinets for their next buzz.
"Intense" is how law-enforcement leaders in Pueblo describe today's generation of young partyers.
"When we were growing up, we drank to have fun. Nowadays, kids are drinking to get drunk," said Charlene Graham, chief of the law enforcement bureau for the Pueblo County Sheriff's Department.
"Underage drinking has been an age-old concern," said Jim Billings, chief of the city police department, "and it does appear to me that the intensity has increased, and the concept of illegal drug use has grown."
Although not unique to Pueblo, underage drinking and drug use - especially the growing trend of consuming prescription medicine - is of great concern. At least one high school student died of an accidental overdose this school year.
"Fifteen to 20 percent of our kids are 80 to 85 percent of the problem, and 80 to 90 percent of all crime is attributed to alcohol and drug abuse in all its forms," said Sheriff Kirk Taylor. "Drugs and alcohol lead into everything - domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, property damage, assaults, you name it."
Alcohol and drug violations for youths 18 and younger have increased - dramatically, in some cases - between 2001 and 2007, according to statistics from the Pueblo Police Department:
- Violations for marijuana possession were up 136 percent in 2007 from 2001, and that number is actually down from the 147-percent record hike in 2006.
- Overall drug arrests have climbed 113 percent, though still down from 2006's mark of a 124 percent increase since 2001.
- Arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol are up 6 percent.
- The number of offenses for liquor possession has grown 70 percent since 2001.
Those statistics don't necessarily reflect a surge in drinking and drug use, according to police, but a greater devotion of resources to curbing the problem.
'Skittling,' 'Pharming'
The illegal use of prescription medicine, also known as 'skittling' and 'pharming' among youths, is not widespread in Pueblo, according to investigators.
Some kids know what narcotics they're using, the effects they produce. Other kids, it's been reported, reach blindly into a pile of pills scattered on a table or mixed in a bowl.
Officer Brandee Compton has spent the last three of her nine years on the police department stationed at Keating Education Center, where the majority of the student population have been in trouble with Pueblo City Schools.
Compton has seen her share of drug and gang activity and arrests. Except for last school year, when she arrested a couple students in possession of illegal meds, she's seen fewer illegal medications this year. But she's heard a story or two.
"The way I understand it, you have to bring some pills to get into the (pharm) party; that's your cover charge," Compton said. "It could be anything from birth control to Viagra and Oxycontin. Anything could be in that bowl. It's happened. And it doesn't matter what economic community you're from; you can be a gang-banger or a cheerleader."
Mixing medications is "risky activity," Billings said, but "if that were happening more, I think we'd be seeing more overdose deaths. I think most kids who are taking pharmaceuticals know what they are taking."
Availability is the problem. The number of prescription meds issued today is greater than ever, according to medical officials.
"People 65 and older today are on an average of seven different medications," said Patrick Stanifer, a registered nurse and trauma services educator/ injury prevention coordinator at St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center. "Kids are doing a lot of drugs with their parents and family's meds."
The number of young adults who have been treated for accidental drug overdoses is low, according to nurses at St. Mary-Corwin and Parkview medical centers, although exact numbers are unknown.
"We're not seeing huge numbers because they don't want to bring them in, they know they'll get in trouble," said Stanifer.
"Some kids just sleep it off," said Mike Archuleta, a registered nurse and director of emergency/trauma services at Parkview.
Unlike other narcotics, prescription meds are harder to test for, their chemicals pass drug screens undetected. Therefore tracking such overdoses is tough, and drug testing isn't mandatory anyway, according to Stanifer and Archuleta.
"It's not as well-tracked as we like," Stanifer said.
Yet both hospitals have seen a disturbing pattern develop.
At Parkview, Archuleta said there have been incidents this school year, usually during weekends, where inebriated teenagers passed out either from the influence of alcohol or drugs, have been dropped off in the ER for treatment.
"We've had kids pushed out of vehicles," Archuleta said. "They just open the car door, push 'em out and drive off."
Stanifer hasn't seen that at St. Mary-Corwin, but he said the hospital treated a high-school student in recent months who overdosed on prescription medication.
"It was related to getting various narcotics through different sources. The young patient pulled out fine," Stanifer said.
Pharming came to Pueblo's attention when 17-year-old Corey Suazo, a senior at South High School, died of a drug overdose in September after attending a pharm party. Lethal levels of cocaine and the painkiller Oxycontin were found in his system.
Suazo's death sparked a grand jury investigation that led to the indictments of 10 adults - the majority who were younger than 20 at the time of their arrest - and six juveniles - five South High students and one student of Central High School.
"We could have snared more, if we had more time, but we had to act fast because such a large number were heavily involved, we were worried one of these kids was going to OD," said Deputy Police Chief John Ercul. "Now, we're worried about Ecstasy, prescription drugs, Oxycontin. Not long ago, we busted a kid who had a ton of prescription drugs around a school. He was giving pills away, partly to be accepted. He was stealing the pills from his sick mother."
School zone
Marijuana is still the No. 1 drug confiscated on high school campuses, according to school resource officers from both Pueblo school districts.
"Marijuana today is so much stronger than when I was a kid," Sheriff Taylor said. "Pot back then had a THC level of 20 percent; now it's 80 percent."
Statistics available from the Colorado Department of Education do not list the type of drugs confiscated on school campuses, nor was that information available from the Pueblo police or sheriff's departments.
But schools and officers alike agree pot is their top drug problem, whether it be confiscated on campus or students are caught under its influence at school.
Crime stats from the 2001-02 through the 2006-07 school years are available online from the Colorado Department of Education.
According to those statistics for Pueblo City Schools:
- Central had the most drug infractions during that time, 153; East ranked second with 138; then South with 132; Centennial, 127; and Keating Learning Center 118.
- South had the most alcohol infractions with 44; East had 33; Central, 28; Centennial, 18; and Keating had 10.
According to statistics for District 70, Pueblo County High School recorded 81 drug violations and 27 alcohol violations; Pueblo West High with 61 drug violations and 13 for alcohol cases (stats were not available for the 2006-07 school year).
Small amounts of cocaine have been found in Pueblo schools, with no confirmed cases of methamphetamine and other hard drugs, according to high school resource officers who talked with The Chieftain.
(The Chieftain interviewed all SROs except at South. The officer there referred all questions to his supervisor, who would not talk specifically about South or any high school, saying it wasn't "fair" to single out a certain school).
An 18-year-old girl was arrested at 12:40 a.m. in late March for property damage at Pitts Middle School on the South Side. Officers found her in possession of her mother's prescription medicine - painkillers acetaminophen and hydrocodone.
The girl admitted to selling the meds "to buy diapers for her baby," according to police.
The teenager also was cited for contributing to the deliquency of minors because she was in the company of two friends, ages 17 and 13.
Deputy Bryan DeHerrera, who works at his alma mater Pueblo County, said an underclassman this year was caught with "a variety of pills" at school. The student was suspended and now attends a different school.
Deputy Doug Gifford works at schools in Pueblo West. He said he had an incident with a middle school student this year who stole his older sibling's medication and took it to school.
"He was sharing them with his buddies," Gifford said. "The parents weren't paying attention to what was going on."
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