Parents get an earful about drugs

Educational program for adults shows that prescription pills rank No. 1, By Becca Tucker Sussex Borough — Last year, 18 people died from drug overdoses in Sussex County, more than ever before. And, for the first time in a long time, heroin was not the number one killer. It was prescription drugs, then heroin, then alcohol. That was just some of the information brought to the crowd gathered at the Sussex Middle School for a program called Navigating the Teen Years, that focused on educating adults about drugs. “Go home and watch TV tonight,” said Becky Carlson, assistant director of the Center for Prevention and Counseling in Newton, “and you’ll see at least two commercials for prescription drugs. They will be light and airy.” The pills advertised in those spots can be found in many home medicine cabinets. Carlson was speaking to 50 parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, coaches and teachers at the March 3 presentation sponsored by Wantage Township and the Sussex-Wantage School District. Generation Rx Hours before Wednesday night’s presentation, security at the Sussex County courthouse discovered that a teenager had prescription muscle relaxants and no prescription when he turned out his pockets for a routine security check. The teen, whose back was bothering him, had gotten the pills from his mother. The teen told the officers, who confiscated the pills, that he would just get more, since his mother worked for a doctor. Sgt. Lawrence Beller, a sheriff’s officer, told the story to illustrate the pervasive casual attitude toward pharmaceuticals. In 2008, Sussex County saw a 42 percent increase in the abuse of painkillers among middle-schoolers, according to a countywide survey by the Center for Prevention and Counseling. The 2010 survey is being conducted now. “I’d venture to bet — and I don’t usually bet — that we are going to see...prescription drugs have just exploded,” said Carlson. This year the DARE curriculum, taught to fifth- and sixth-graders, was updated to include prescription pills. Its core program teaches about alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana, said Dan Storey of the Sussex County Sheriff’s Office, who teaches drug education at six schools. Nationwide, alcohol continues to kill more people than all other drugs combined. The average Sussex County youngster now takes his or her first drink before age 12. It’s so easy But for children, pills are easier to get than liquor. More kids abuse prescription drugs than any illicit drug but marijuana. “The dealers all have stuff in school,” said Jeff, an 18-year-old area student and former hard drug user. He’d come to speak to the people attending the program at the Sussex Middle School, he said, to help others recognize that anyone could be affected. “You can meet in the bathroom, during class” to buy drugs, Jeff said. Or have the drugs delivered to your mailbox or go to certain hot spots around town where there’s always a dealer, he explained. Jeff feels that public speaking helps him stay clean. As a rule, such speakers do not disclose specifics, like last name, school and what drug they used. Before her son started using, “I was at all these meetings,” said Jeff’s mother, Terry, who was also on hand. Jeff was a good student who ran triathlons, so his mother didn’t know there was a problem until she found drugs when she was cleaning his room. Young drug addicts are honor roll students as often as they are failing in school, and symptoms of drug use can be almost impossible to tell from symptoms of normal adolescence. But, said Jeff’s mother, if a parent has a knot in the stomach because it feels like something’s not right, it probably true. After the talk, parents gathered around a table displaying LSD, heroin, cocaine, crack, prescription pills, “special K,” marijuana, rolling papers and a finger scale, seized or bought by undercover police. “It’s so cheap!” one mother exclaimed, pointing at LSD labeled with a price tag of $5 to $10 per dose. “It looks like candy,” said another mother, scanning Vicodin pills and pink and white ecstasy tablets. For help or more information, contact the Center for Prevention and Counseling at 973-383-4787 or www.centerforprevention.org.