More kids get high on household items (My Title: Why school drug testing programs don't work.)

The Hunterdon County Democrat (NJ) ^ | 2003/05/01 | Deb Dawson

[Ed_in_NJ]

More kids get high on household items

By Deb Dawson

Just about everyone in Hunterdon County has at least one item in the house that can be used to get high, and many Hunterdon teens know it.

Aerosol cans of all types are used as inhalants — Cool Whip, Pledge, air freshener, you name it. Sheets of fabric softener placed in a bag, gasoline, paint, nail polish, permanent markers and White-Out are all used as inhalants, too. Want a “snot ball”? That’s what kids call a ball of rubber cement that is burned while the fumes are inhaled.

Karin Gruss, director of the Hunterdon County Youth Facility, opened a lot of eyes during a lunchtime seminar Tuesday about ‘‘Current Trends in Drug Use’’ sponsored by Hunterdon Prevention Resources. It was held at the Union Hotel in Flemington.

Over-the-counter drugs are getting a lot of attention from teens here, too — large quantities of Coricidin, Dramamine and Robitussin are all used for a buzz. And, according to Daytop, a residential drug rehabilitation program in Mendham where kids from Hunterdon go for treatment, many young female heroin users started with Stackers, a diet aid available at most pharmacies, then moved on to heroin to stay thin.

Gruss said the most popular drugs in Hunterdon now are alcohol, heroin, marijuana and hallucinogens, including mushrooms, or ‘shrooms’ in the vernacular. Alcohol is the most popular.

The marijuana sold here is frequently laced with other drugs. Gruss said she knows several kids who were sure they were only smoking pot, but testing showed the marijuana contained opiates or cocaine as well.

The marijuana itself is much more potent than the varieties sold 20 years ago because it is ‘‘grown indoors, cultivated and given nutrients.’’ Gruss said, ‘‘One joint now has three times the tar of a cigarette, plus known carcinogens. Five joints a week equals one pack of cigarettes a day’’ when considering marijuana’s effects on the body.

Currently Daytop’s intensive outpatient program, which uses space at the county youth shelter in Raritan Township, is treating nine clients for heavy marijuana use. Four additional people applied for the outpatient program there but were referred to the Mendham facility for residential treatment for heroin. Gruss said that so far 50 percent of the clients of Daytop Hunterdon, which opened in April, were seeking treatment for heroin addiction.

Lt. Ken Harding, chief of detectives of the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office and head of the Narcotics Task Force, said the most helpful tip he could offer parents to keep kids away from drugs is to ‘‘be more involved. They need to understand more.’’

He said so far this year there have been five reported drug overdoses in Hunterdon. Two of them resulted in death.

[Ed_in_NJ]

The experts are finally realizing that if a kid wants to get high, there are dozens of ways to do so.

There are far too many to include in any random drug testing program; so, when a school initiates a random drug testing program, a determined drug user just switches to a substance that is not included in the test suite.

[Egregious Philbin]

The marijuana sold here is frequently laced with other drugs. Gruss said she knows several kids who were sure they were only smoking pot, but testing showed the marijuana contained opiates or cocaine as well.

I have never known anyone to have smoked "laced marijuana." Why would anyone put lace it with coke? Coke is more expensive than pot - if they really did do that they'd sell it for more and advertise it as something new.

[Ed_in_NJ]

I cannot see why anyone would use either.

[Phantom Lord]

What is far more likely is that someone had "tossed a salad" (sprinkled some coke on their pot) and smoked it as opposed to it being 'laced' with coke. Or, someone had done so in the past with the pipe or whatever was used and the residue is what showed up in the tests.

[Egregious Philbin]

Coke is worthless. Pot is far more innocuous a high than even alcohol.

[KantianBurke]

One key element that gets lost between those screaming for the end of the WOD and those who support it, is THE ROLE PARENTS PLAY IN RAISING THEIR KIDS! If parents raised the kids with values, spent time with them and knew such simple things as who their friends were, they're be alot less drug problems in this country. No big govt storm troopers kicking down doors. No need to worry about drugs being frely available. Or to put it another way, I highly doubt that well adjusted kids with caring parents are gonna OD from paint.

[Ed_in_NJ]

Amen (been there, done that)!

[headsonpikes]

I think the kids are getting high on the hyperbolic hypocrisy of the deemed authorities.

The usual bunch of 'authorized spokespersons' start with little credibility, and finish with none.

The kids are 'smoking' that sh*t, and are about to blow the petty socialist minds of their elders.

[Ed_in_NJ]

Well put!

[MrLeRoy]

I highly doubt that well adjusted kids with caring parents are gonna OD from paint.

I agree. Most of the kids in the article are probably trying to buzz away the knowledge that Mom and Dad care less about them than they do about careers or the extra toys a second income can buy. And I can't think of a damned thing the government can do about it.

[jmc813]

WOD Ping

[robertpaulsen]

"I have never known anyone to have smoked "laced marijuana."

I suppose it depends on where you live. Reminds me of an old quote:

"The late film critic Pauline Kael’s reaction to Richard Nixon’s landslide victory over George McGovern: "I don’t know how Richard Nixon could have won. I don’t know anybody who voted for him."

There are those who wish to legalize "just" marijuana. Expect these stories to become more common as unsuspecting kids get hooked on the opium.

[MrLeRoy]

There are those who wish to legalize "just" marijuana. Expect these stories to become more common as unsuspecting kids get hooked on the opium.

Like people are currently getting hooked on opium-laced alcohol?

Expect bobbypaulsen to whip up scare stories till the cows come home.

[Egregious Philbin]

Well, if Pauline Kael were commenting on movies instead of politics, i'd say perhaps one would be more inclined to listen to her. I know whereof I speak, though I suppose you're right, it may depend on where I live. Where I live "the opium" is exceedingly rare and, therefore, not likely to get anyone addicted. If someone gets "laced" marijuana but doesn't know what it's laced with, how could it get them addicted to it? I crave... whatever that stuff was in the marijuana I just had. The drug warriors omit the details and use scare tactics - sure, smoking joints is worse for your lungs than cigarettes, but marijuana can be ingested, and legal marijuana would come in several forms.

[robertpaulsen]

"Like people are currently getting hooked on opium-laced alcohol?"

Geez, MrLeRoy, is there a name for that concoction?

On the other hand there are what, over a dozen street names for pot laced with opium or pot laced with cocaine?

Get your head out of the sand and face reality.

[MrLeRoy]

there are what, over a dozen street names for pot laced with opium or pot laced with cocaine?

Supposing that's so, it in no way follows that those mixtures are being sold as straight pot---much less that we should "expect more" of that under pot relegalization as you claim.

[Trailerpark Badass]

There are those who wish to legalize "just" marijuana. Expect these stories to become more common as unsuspecting kids get hooked on the opium.

Oh, please...

[Trailerpark Badass]

Geez, MrLeRoy, is there a name for that concoction?

Yes, laudanum.