Pubdate: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 Source: Bradenton Herald (FL) Copyright: 2007 Bradenton Herald Contact: http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/58 Author: Jasper Miller Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States) KIDS ARE DYING - DO WE CARE? At certain weekend parties in Manatee County, we are told, along with consuming plenty of beer and marijuana, teens liven up the evening with a game they call "Trust." The host puts a big bowl on the living room coffee table, and the entry fee for "playing" the game is a handful of pills. When all have made a contribution, the host stirs the contents, then invites guests to dig in. Each takes a handful and washes the pills down with a drink. The game gets its name from this: The players "trust" they will live through the experience. This, say leaders of the Manatee County Substance Abuse Coalition, is just one way local young people casually abuse drugs in what they call an epidemic of substance abuse among teenagers. While parents and the community at large bask in denial, teens are overdosing, dying in car crashes caused by drunken drinking and committing suicide in alarming numbers, say coalition officials. Last year in the 12th Judicial Circuit, more than 70 deaths of people younger than 25 were attributed to alcohol or drug abuse, says Jan Sumner, program specialist for Safe & Drug-Free Schools and president of the Substance Abuse Coalition. Adds Ruth Lyerly, coalition member, "That is an astronomical number. If it were measles deaths, there would be an uproar." Lyerly has painful, personal knowledge of the problem: Two years ago, her 18-year-old son Todd Peurifoy, a Manatee High senior, committed suicide after abusing drugs for 21/2 years. At his funeral, dozens of friends and schoolmates left personal messages of grief on a poster-size photo of her son, Lyerly says. Within a year, three of those friends also were dead: one a suicide, two in DUI-connected crashes. Sure, teens have always abused one thing or another. In great-grandpa's day it might have been moonshine, in grandpa's, beer. For the baby boomers - many of them parents of today's teens - it was pot and LSD, along with cheap wine and beer. And most of them eventually straightened out and became productive citizens, didn't they? Perhaps this been-there, done-that attitude contributes to the lack of concern about the substance abuse of today's youth. But coalition leaders say 21st century society has created a "perfect storm" of a drug-abuse fad with one tragic consequence: teens are dying. Among the factors: - - A variety of new legal and illegal drugs with far greater potency than boomers ever dreamed of. - - Easy access via the Internet to prescription drugs like Oxycontin; a credit card is all a teen needs to order 100 of those powerful and addictive painkillers. A $150 order can quickly be turned into $1,500 at retail. As few as two doses can hook a user. - - A new permissiveness toward drugs by society. Many parents no longer frown on beer or pot use by their teens; quite a few, in fact, allow parties in their homes, figuring their kids will be safer there than out driving under the influence. As a result, says Sumner, "anything short of heroin or cocaine is considered OK" by some. - - Lack of involvement in their kids' lives by stressed-out parents, leading to cluelessness about what teens are up to. "Use drugs? Not my kid," is the reaction that produces a sea of empty seats at drug-awareness programs sponsored by the coalition. - - Glamorization of drug use in music, movies and on TV and publicity about celebrity abusers. The prevailing teen view of drug users has shifted from "losers" to the "cool" crowd. Indeed, said a ManaTeen volunteer working with the coalition, students who don't use drugs now are the exception, rather than the rule; the "clean" kids are stigmatized as nerds. This problem is bigger than a single editorial can fully explain. Hopefully, it could be a catalyst for a community forum packed with parents who want to get involved in fighting the drug epidemic. For now, you can learn more about it by attending the Freedom Festival 2007 sponsored by the coalition from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday at G. T. Bray park. Bands will entertain, and volunteers will have literature to help both teens and parents better understand the severity of the substance-abuse epidemic that is killing our kids at an alarming rate. Talk back Is teen substance abuse a big problem in Manatee County? Share your views in the Article Commenting area of Bradenton.com. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin