Pubdate: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 Source: Dominion Post, The (New Zealand) Copyright: 2006 The Dominion Post Contact: http://www.dompost.co.nz Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2550 Author: Keri Welham Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) SMOKER AT THREE, DRUGGIE BY 12 Michael, 14, cannot remember the exact moment when he had his first cigarette puff, but is fairly confident he was smoking at age three. From then, till he started school, he smoked with his siblings intermittently. When their mum threw parties, they would steal cigarettes and smoke them later. It was only a matter of time before they were stealing and smoking marijuana. Teen drug counselling service WellTrust says Wellington children like Michael are developing full-blown drug or alcohol habits before they leave primary school. WellTrust has helped 1046 Wellington teenagers aged 12 to 17 with alcohol or drug problems in the past six years. About 80 per cent of those became hooked on drugs or alcohol after developing smoking habits at an early age. Michael's eldest sister, aged about nine at the time, would give the three-year-old lit cigarettes to smoke. Cigarettes and cannabis were common in the family home and counsellors say Michael's belief that he started smoking at three is credible given the environment. The same sister was with Michael when, aged 10, he smoked his first joint. He started smoking marijuana regularly at 11 and cigarettes daily from age 12. He is now receiving counselling and has reduced his twice-daily marijuana habit to once or twice a week. All WellTrust clients are interviewed on their past drug, alcohol and cigarette use. Smoking cigarettes is of interest to drug counsellors because it is considered a "gateway" to illicit drug use, WellTrust executive director Murray Trenberth says. Data collected from the teenagers revealed 112 had their first cigarette aged eight or under, 11 of those aged five and under. Of the 19 teenagers who had their first puff at age six, the average age they started habitual smoking was 11. In most cases siblings or other relatives provided the cigarettes and in some cases helped to light them. Mr Trenberth, former principal of Taita College in Lower Hutt, said that, when considering the dysfunctional homes some of his clients were raised in and the way their lives had become characterised by anti-social behaviour in just 12 years of life, the claims of first smoking as pre-schoolers were credible. "When you meet these kids you can see it is absolutely credible." Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) director Becky Freeman said WellTrust's data was shocking. The incidence of pre-schoolers smoking raised obvious parenting concerns. ASH's data placed the average starting age for habitual smoking at 14, but WellTrust was dealing with children whose problems were at the severe end of the drug-using spectrum. "These are exceptionally high-risk (children)." About 80 per cent of those referred to WellTrust had smoked cigarettes before progressing to marijuana. The School Trustees' Association's national conference in Christchurch last week heard that some primary and secondary schools were drug-testing pupils. Of the 5000 suspensions in New Zealand last year, 29 per cent were for drug use. Mr Trenberth said drugs increasingly affected all socio-economic and racial groups. Busy parents who left their children at home alone with substantial pocket money were just as likely to have children taking drugs as dysfunctional families. "Increasingly, (we get) a lot of very ordinary kids." WellTrust's database showed the drug of choice for 66 per cent of clients was marijuana, 24 per cent alcohol and just 0.1 per cent pure methamphetamine or P. The average WellTrust client is truant from school about eight days a month. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman