Pubdate: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 1999 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.uniontrib.com/ Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX Author: Anna Cearley, Union-Tribune Staff Writer DRAMA IS USED FOR ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM Truth And Consequences MIRIMAR AIR STATION - Dance music shook the canvas walls lined with alcoholic beverages. Four teen-agers took long gulps and dipped their noses into packets of white powder. The air was heavy with peer pressure. "What's up, girl, just try one hit . . . that's my girl," one youth said to his 16-year-old companion. She tried a hit, and took many more before falling to the ground. No breathing, no pulse. Her friends called 911 and then split. Paramedics arrived. They could not revive her, and she was taken to a hospital followed by her teary-eyed mother. It was a pivotal moment for the 16-year-old, and plenty of eyes followed her path toward self-destruction along a series of canvas tents set up at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. The re-enactment, called "The Drug Store," is attracting about 1,000 San Diego County elementary and middle school children this week to see firsthand the consequences of drug and alcohol abuse in a dramatized format. Teen-agers act out the consequences of substance abuse for visiting students - -- arrest for drug possession, trial, drug rehabilitation, a return to drugs and alcohol and, eventually, "death." The nationwide program started in 1993 in Alabama. This is the second year community groups in San Diego County have staged the event. It involves 21 agencies, including the Coronado and San Diego police departments, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Scripps Mercy Hospital. Yesterday, students from Shadow Hills Elementary School in Alpine and Lakeside Middle School in Lakeside attended the presentation. For most, the sequential story line was a refreshing deviation from hearing the typical mantra: "Don't do drugs." "They've been telling us that since the second or third grade," said Shadow Hills fifth-grader Jamie Bruce, a veteran of special assemblies and classroom visits from police officers and the occasional talking bird puppet. But this time, "they didn't just tell us about it . . . you could see what happens," said Shadow Hills fifth-grader Thomas Brierton. What the students did not know was that many of the teen-agers portraying the troubled protagonist and her friends have lived through similar situations. They are working with San Diego Youth and Community Services to straighten out their lives. The 16-year-old girl said that she had gone through every step of the drama in real life, except for overdosing on drugs. "I wanted to do this for the kids so they could open their eyes to what's going on," said the girl, who asked not to be identified. She said probation and becoming a mother are the reasons she shook her own drug and alcohol habit a year ago. Vince Rice, spokesman for the San Diego field division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said he believes programs like this have a role in keeping down reported drug use among teens. The National Institute on Drug Abuse keeps tabs on drug use among eighth-, 10th-and 12th-grade students. It reports that 54.3 percent of high school seniors in 1997 had used an illicit drug, defined as alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs such as cocaine. That is down from the peak of 65.6 percent in 1981, but well above the 40.7 percent in 1992. A DEA agent -- wearing black boots and holsters containing firearms -- led off yesterday's presentation with a talk about the consequences of drug abuse. He invited students to look at samples of crack, marijuana and other drugs. Then the agent grabbed a girl and forced from her grip a sample of "heroin." He ordered her to put her hands behind her back and called over sheriff's deputies to handcuff her. "We thought it was real when they pushed all the other people away," said Rolling Hills fifth-grader Autumn Boyle. But the youths figured it out by the time they reached the second tent, where the 16-year-girl was fingerprinted and photographed for a mug shot before donning a blue jail suit. At the third tent, Superior Court Judge Bonnie Dumanis whacked her gavel on the desk to bring order to her airy courtroom decorated with the seal of California. Actual attorneys represented the state and the 16-year-old girl. "My purpose is to rehabilitate you, to get you on the right track," Dumanis said before committing her to 30 days in juvenile hall, ordering 10 hours in a work program and requiring several other conditions, such as drug and rehabilitation counseling and a 6 p.m. curfew. The 16-year-old then met with Melvin Bibbs, a youth developer with San Diego Youth and Community Services. Bibbs told her she would have to meet with other youths in group counseling and submit to random drug tests. He warned her not to wear gang colors. "It's gonna be so girlie," she said. Bibbs said that keeping away from gang colors would help her change her behavior, and that it is for her safety. "If you dress in your colors and see someone else in other colors, then you are going to have problems," he said. The teen-ager agreed to try, but later met up with some friends at a party in the next tent, where the debauchery descended into a deadly scenario. She was placed on a stretcher and taken to an emergency room, where a team tried unsuccessfully to revive her from her overdose using electrical shocks. "My baby, my baby," sobbed her "mother." The students were asked to pay their respects at the coffin located in the final tent decorated with black balloons. They peered inside the coffin's interior and saw their own reflections. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D