Troubled Teens Resources

Should a fourteen year old girl who gave meth to six classmates have a teen crisis intervention or spend some time in juvenile detention? I think this is a question that a large number of people are asking these days, what is the best way to handle a troubled teen.

“If the teenager who brought methamphetamine to a St. Paul middle school were older, she’d probably be going to prison.
Instead, the 14-year-old girl’s guilty plea Wednesday likely will result in drug intervention.
Though police caught the girl who handed out the drugs during lunch at Hazel Park Middle School Academy Tuesday - resulting in her and six other students being sent to area hospitals as a precaution - the investigation wasn’t over Wednesday. Police still want to know where the girl got the crystal meth. They say they found an additional 2 grams of the drug in her home Tuesday night.
Police are looking at the girl’s parents as a possible source, authorities said.On Wednesday, the 14-year-old girl involved pleaded guilty in Ramsey County juvenile court to second-degree sale of a controlled substance. She is being held in the county’s juvenile detention center until her next hearing on Oct. 10, according to the Ramsey County attorney’s office.
For an adult who pleaded guilty to the same charge, there would a presumptive prison sentence, said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom. In juvenile court, there aren’t sentencing guidelines.
The 14-year-old girl might face detention, but “she’s very young - I would think the intervention would focus on treatment and supervision to ensure there aren’t any future problems,” said Backstrom, whose office isn’t involved in the case.
Before a judge determines the girl’s fate, officials will prepare a report that likely evaluates whether she has a prior criminal history, her school records, her home life, and her mental and chemical health.”

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K.D.

Teen crisis intervention is hard to implement in a community where parents and citizens tend to be in denial. Wealthier communities may have a particularly hard time understanding that drugs and drug problems are no longer confined to certain demographics. Troubled teenagers come from both sides of the track.

And what is true in America is apparently also true in Great Britain. One mother, desperate for her son’s life, lashes back at her wealthy neighbors for failing to take the problem seriously.

“One local mother says it’s time for parents to wake up and realize all youths are at risk of becoming drug addicts.

Peggy Strife, who lives in a $400,000 home in a good neighbourhood, has been grappling with her 20-year-old son Brad’s crystal meth addiction for the past several years.

“I’m waiting for him to die,” said Strife about her son…Strife and her spouse lived through their own period of denial about what drugs were doing to Brad. She doesn’t want to see anyone else ignore the problem.

Strife disapproves of recent letters to the editor in the Herald where people have expressed opposition to building a youth treatment centre here.

“We have a high drug rate here and people don’t want to admit it,” Strife said.

When Strife was cruising the streets with a baseball bat, attempting to stop her son from finding and using meth, she rarely tracked down her son in areas like the West Flat, which she says tend to be associated with substance abuse issues.

“A lot of the houses I was at were on the East and West hills,” said Strife. She estimated that there were six youth drug dealers within a five-block radius of her upper-class home.

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America is not alone in developing teen crisis intervention measures to fight meth addiction. England now fears that the plague is crossing the water and that they shall soon find themselves needing addicted teen help to deal with their own epidemic.

You would think that the facts about meth would be enough to warn any sane person away. If not the facts, than the pictures of ravaged users that serve as evidence for the facts. The woman pictured here has used for 10 years. But teens still imagine that they really do know it all and consider warnings to be scare tactics. A few times won’t hurt, so they think.

True of some drugs, but not of meth. More so, it may be decades later before a user finds out just how much an addiction will cost them.

“Young people who use crystal meth risk long-term damage to their brain cells similar to that caused by Parkinson’s disease.

The crystal drug destroys nerve cells that produce dopamine. These are directly related to movement control.

The Class A ‘party drug’ is an extremely powerful and addictive stimulant. It can cause a rapid heart rate, paranoia, confusion and violence. It also increases the risk of stroke, lung and kidney damage.

It was previously thought that crystal meth, known as methamphetamine, led to short-term psychotic behaviour but did not have an effect after users stopped using it.

But research leader Dr Jacqueline McGinty said the findings were worrying as the drug posed “long-term public health consequences.” She said the negative effects of the drug might not be apparent until decades after a person has used it.”

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(Image source/click to enlarge)

“I destroy homes, I tear families apart,
I take your children, and that’s just the start.
I’m more costly than diamonds, more precious than gold,
The sorrow I bring is a sight to behold.
If you need me, remember I’m easily found,
I live all around you - in schools and in town
I live with the rich, I live with the poor,
I live down the street, and maybe next door.
I’m made in a lab, but not like you think,
I can be made under the kitchen sink.
In your child’s closet, and even in the woods,
If this scares you to death, well it certainly should.
I have many names, but there’s one you know best,
I’m sure you’ve heard of me, my name is crystal meth.
My power is awesome, try me you’ll see,
But if you do, you may never break free.
Just try me once and I might let you go,
But try me twice, and I’ll own your soul.
When I possess you, you’ll steal and you’ll lie,
You do what you have to — just to get high.
[…]
I’ll own you completely, your soul will be mine.
The nightmares I’ll give you while lying in bed,
The voices you’ll hear, from inside your head.
The sweats, the shakes, the visions you’ll see,
I want you to know, these are all gifts from me.
But then it’s too late, and you’ll know in your heart,
That you are mine, and we shall not part.
You’ll regret that you tried me, they always do,
But you came to me, not I to you.
You knew this would happen, many times you were told,
But you challenged my power, and chose to be bold.
You could have said no, and just walked away,
If you could live that day over, now what would you say?
I’ll be your master, you will be my slave,
I’ll even go with you, when you go to your grave…”

The above are excerpts from a long poem written by a troubled teen. She wrote this while in jail on meth charges. Not long after her release she was found dead from an overdose, the needle still in her arm.

Her words attest to the fact that she knew her enemy well. Her death is testimony to th power of that enemy.

The website you will find this on is a result of one woman’s campaign to defeat this enemy. In 1996 she and her husband lost their 17 year old son to a heroin overdose. Out of that tragedy she built the “Courage to Speak Foundation”, making presentations to schools across the country, and as you can see from some of the letters from the teens that she features on her site, she is making an impact.

If your teenager’s school is ready for a teen crisis intervention, you can see about booking a presentation here.