Troubled Teens Resources

One front in the war on teen age drug abuse is the ongoing battle against meth. Meth takes an immeasurable toll on the communities it infests. Unlike other drug pursuits, meth carries with it the additional dangers of meth labs, volatile chemicals and explosions. Yet all drug battles need concerned citizens and funding. Take away support and the dealers win.

Michigan has made great strides in protecting their teens at risk from meth, but without continuing financial support, all efforts are for naught. As a parent, be aware of legislation and political maneuvering that might affect anti-drug programs in your area.

“Two years ago, southwestern Michigan was awash in methamphetamine.

Hundreds of meth labs had been discovered in homes, hotel rooms, trucks and woods. Houses were rendered unlivable by meth chemicals. Children of meth addicts were abused and neglected. Dozens of cattle died at a Richland farm after thieves stealing anhydrous ammonia — an ingredient in meth — left a valve open, allowing release of the poisonous gas.

Police, state and local officials took action. They poured time and money into combating the meth problem. The state Legislature voted to put pseudoephedrine — another ingredient in meth — behind the counter at pharmacies. Police worked overtime, money became available to help property-owners clean up contaminated sites, children were removed from dangerous homes where meth was cooked, addiction-treatment programs geared at getting people off of the very addictive drug were set up.”
[…]
…if the state government shuts down on Oct. 1…so would state funding to combat meth. Even the state Web site identifying contaminated properties would shut down.

This area has made important strides in fighting off a very dangerous plague.

We can’t afford to retreat.

(source)

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder is said to dissipate to a great degree by exposing teens at risk to the great outdoors. When you think about it, this “disorder” didn’t exist, for all intents and purposes, thirty years ago. Not saying the condition wasn’t perhaps present, or that some of us aren’t wired to proceed through life at 90 miles an hour. Just suggesting that thirty years ago, when a kid jumped on his bike and sailed out of the driveway, that need to go fast, to satisfy restlessness, to get a constant stream of stimuli, was satisfied.

Consider this sad fact, out of Los Angeles.

“In San Diego, 90 percent of youngsters do not know how to swim and 34 percent have never been to the ocean even though it is only 15, 20 minutes away from their homes, according to the organization, Aquatic Adventure, which is trying to change that.

Because kids don’t bike much anymore, either for transportation or recreation, bicycle sales are down 31 percent in the past five years. The outdoors industry is surviving by selling high-end expensive equipment to adults rather than entry-level gear for kids.”

(Source)

Nostalgic though it may be, those days of yore when there were three TV channels and kids preferred the company of their pals over the latest MTV reality show, were days when you rarely heard the phrase teen age drug abuse. Neither did you hear the words ADD, meth labs, or Ritalin.

No, you can’t bring the innocence of long ago back, but you can raise your troubled teen according to the same principles; play hard, work hard. A teen who does that all summer instead of getting down with his iPod won’t need to hear those words either.

It is rather disconcerting to consider that a particular type of crime lends itself to a particular type of drug addict’s ability to execute it. In the continuing teen crisis intervention efforts by law enforcement officials to curb the raging appetite for meth,they are discovering a possible link between meth users and identity theft.

“Like crack cocaine in the 1980’s, officials say, the rise of methamphetamine has been accompanied by a specific set of crimes and skills that are shared among users and dealers.”

Meth users experience a type of high that allow them to commit identity thefts with much more ease than a junkie or crack head might experience.

“Crack users and heroin users are so disorganized and get in these frantic binges, they’re not going to sit still and do anything in an organized way for very long,” Dr. Rawson said. “Meth users, on the other hand, that’s all they have, is time. The drug stimulates the part of the brain that perseverates on things. So you get people perseverating on things, and if you sit down at a computer terminal you can go for hours and hours.”

Whereas crack and heroin are typically sold in densely populated urban areas, meth labs tend to be found in rural areas. Mail is easily stolen from unlocked mail boxes and fake IDs are routinely needed to rent apartments and studios and isolated houses to set up meth labs.

“In a survey of 500 county sheriffs, 27 percent said methamphetamine had contributed to a rise in identity theft in their areas. Even more — 62 percent and 68 percent, respectively — noted that it contributed to increases in domestic abuse or robberies and burglaries.”

(Source)

Unfortunately, the destruction that is so much a signature of drug abuse extends to the community at large.