Troubled Teens Resources

Can a cigarette ultimately lead a kid to teen drug abuse,land them in jail or in schools for troubled teens? Well, it’s a stretch, but the first step down that road has to start somewhere and a recently released report offers the opinion that it starts with that first cigarette.

“Compared to 12- to 17-year-olds who don’t smoke, teenagers who do are over five times more likely to drink and 13 times more likely to use marijuana, media reported quoting a U.S. study Wednesday.

Smokers aged 12 to 17 are more likely to drink alcohol than nonsmokers — 59 percent compared to 11 percent, the study found.

Compared to those who never smoked, those who began smoking at age 12 or younger are more than three times more likely to binge on alcohol — 31 percent compared to 9 percent, and nearly seven times more likely to use other illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine.”

If indeed the report proves to be accurate - and one always hesitates to accept these findings without further confirmations down the road - none the less, if it is true, then the sequence of addictions is one everyone is familiar with.

The question that has often been posed by parents asks if teenagers seek relief for their depression and anxiety via drugs or if drug use precedes the onset of those conditions. This suggests that smoking could set the teen up for both.

“Teenagers who smoke also have a higher risk of depression and anxiety disorders. Teens who reported early initiation of smoking were more likely to experience serious feelings of hopelessness, depression and worthlessness in the past year.”

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Teen crisis intervention typically targets troubled teens. A new program circulating through the nation targets the parents of those teens. Many parents simply have no clue what to look for beyond easily recognized drug paraphanilia, such as pipes and bongs.

Some parents are very removed from anything to do with teen drug abuse because they can’t imagine their own teens using. Word to the wise - all teens are at risk and parents need to be drug educated regardless of how confident they are that their teen is “clean”.

“The program featured a mock bedroom of a teenage drug user and around 70 items or indicators were placed throughout it. Parents had the opportunity to walk through and try to identify possible signs of drug use.

In addition the Department of Public Safety provided a teenage drug user’s car exhibit out in front of the high schools so parents could also find possible signs there too.
[…]
“Our goal is that hopefully a parent will see something during the event and a voice inside their head will be screaming to them that something is not right. Even if we just reach one parent, that could be one teen that we save,” Teresa Burnett said.

Gregory Flores, of Port Arthur, admitted he has always had little knowledge as to what drugs are out there, but feels he is not alone.

“It’s alarming. I knew kids were doing some of this. After seeing all the ways that they can hide what they are doing shows that they are smart, but we need to get them focused on being smart in school,” he said. “Parents also need to educate themselves so that they can see what is really going on.”

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When something becomes commonplace, does it all of a sudden become harmless? It is amazing how often you will read that phrase “it’s become common” - about teen drug abuse, drinking, and sex. And it is said as if to say, “Oh well, cats out of the bag now. Nothing we can do.”

And perhaps that is why there will always be a need for schools for troubled teens. As long as parents and teachers and the culture see the outrageous as common, and therefore acceptable, self-destructive behavior will continue to escalate, in all of it’s many manifestations.

Sorry to rant but this article on self-mutilation has, seemingly, the same attitude.

“The self-injury club for teens is not all that exclusive. Joining can almost seem trendy.

“There’s an incredible amount of kids who deal with these issues,” says a 16-year-old high school junior who knows all about membership.

“Cutting is definitely the most popular. I did some of that, but that wasn’t my preference,” she explains. Instead, she usually engaged in bruising herself, sometimes banging her wrist against hard objects. Or, she scraped herself. She says she no longer hurts herself.
[…]
Exactly how much self-injury has increased is not known, but most researchers believe it has grown, along with a kind of acceptance.

“It does seem like it’s something that people don’t frown on quite as much,” says Lloyd-Richardson. Since her report was published, she has heard from many young adults who said cutting was common in their high schools.”
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Probably the most effective teen crisis intervention is that which provides juveniles with a vision for the future and the training necessary to achieve that vision. And far better than the government underwriting the entire bill are those non-profit and corporate entities who provide the funding for programs for troubled teens in their respective communities.

Back Track in San Francisco is a good example.

“Through Back on Track, Simon and her team create collaborations with business and labor as well as the public sector. The focus is getting corporations and nonprofits to notice that there is a population of young people who want to work, but are harming themselves and their communities through low-level drug trade.

“I’ve been able to do some public education, along with (Harris), who’s really spearheading a lot of these conversations around the nation, that public safety is about providing opportunities for people to do the right thing,” she said. “It’s also about ensuring that there are consequences for folks who don’t.”

In addition to Back on Track, Simon runs the district attorney’s Changing the Odds, a summer employment and internship program for at-risk youth.”
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Some communities are blessed with program after program for troubled teens. Though it is unfortunate when a teen needs such a program, it is even more unfortunate if the community that they live in have none to offer. Parents would do well to offer support for those programs helping teenagers in their own communities. Teen drug abuse impacts the entire community through increased crime, pregnancies and broken lives.

The more you read about troubled teens and the tumultuous world that they live in, the more you realize how critical their early years are. It seems that if you don’t start growing a teen right from the very start, the deep relationship and the mutual respect that parents and teens need to weather adolescence never is established.

A teen can, for all the world, seem stable and yet, make a misstep that plummets them down a disastrous path. Some parents spend their entire savings trying to get that teen back. Expensive rehabs, schools for troubled teens, psychotherapy and medication. And sometimes, no matter what the parents have done, the teen is lost.The ultimate fate of a teenager lies in their own hands, as much as parents would like to believe otherwise.

“When Cook learned that her teen daughter, Kayla, was abusing drugs, she went into overdrive. She and Kayla’s father shelled out $33,000 for nine months in a drug treatment program in Hamilton County. After that, Kayla stayed clean for a couple of months late last year. But the allure of drugs was too strong.

On the night of May 13, Kayla went to hang out with friends, and ended up with multiple drugs coursing through her veins. The 18-year-old girl lapsed into a coma. Three days later, she died…

Later that month, her classmates at Lebanon High School graduated without her.

Teen drug abuse deaths are rarely publicized, Cook said. “The parents and families are embarrassed. They don’t want anyone to know their kid died from a drug overdose. I’m embarrassed that mine did.”

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When does teen crisis intervention end and adult punishment begin? There is ongoing debate within the halls of juvenile justice as to appropriate sentencing for violent teen offenders. There is growing concern that as teen violence is perpetuated by adolescents at younger and younger ages, that sentencing needs to be adjusted to reflect the seriousness of their crimes.

The same debate seems to be ongoing in Europe as well. Their various systems of juvenile justice may differ from America’s but they have been as seriously impacted by teen drug abuse, binge drinking and teen crime as we have. They also seem to have the same factions contending for the final word on the matter.

One side contends that it is unjust to force a teen offender into an adult system that offers little in the way of education or rehab.

Allowing defendants under 21 to be tried and sentenced according to juvenile law lowers the chances of repeat offenders by providing judges with more leeway in issuing appropriate sentences, he said.

“In general law you have fines, probation and jail sentences,” Sonnen said. “In juvenile law there is a much wider palette of options.”

Opponents feel that truly violent teens need punishment, not coddling.

“This week, Beate Merk, Bavaria’s justice minister and a member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) renewed criticism that cases such as the juvenile prison torture and murder showed that young offenders were also guilty of serious crimes which weren’t sufficiently punished with a ten-year prison sentence.

Offenders between 18 and 20 who are convicted according to juvenile law should thus get a tougher maximum sentence, Merk said.”

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One can’t help but side with those who wish to meet extreme violence with adult cures. Especially where a long juvenile record indicates the juvenile has zero respect for the law. When young teens witness their peers getting light punishment for serious offenses, it only perpetuates the problem.

Teen crisis intervention isn’t just a one time program or a few seminars. It is an ongoing process for parents with teenagers. It not only entails parents developing preventative measures against teen drug abuse but also requires them to be continually pro-active in their efforts to keep their teens from straying.

By pro-active I mean that the drug scene is constantly changing and parents will want to be cognizant of new drugs coming into their city, or new ways that teens are devising to obtain drugs online. Parents have to be one step ahead of their teens at all times. And that is a pretty tall order.

We keep seeing mention of the drug Salvia. It’s not a new drug, but by so many recent media references, it appears as if it may be becoming new and interesting to teens. It’s been mentioned in reports out of Texas and also out of some Northeastern states. This report is out of California.

“Salvia is an herb that is perfectly legal in California and is the drug of choice for some teens that use it to get high. The herb comes from Mexico where it is used as a spiritual herb for enlightenment.
[…]
Salvia was used by the Aztec Indians for spiritual ceremonies. When used as a drug, the plant leaves are dried and smoked by the user. Only a few leaves are needed for a hallucinogenic effect.

The product is sold over the internet which is how most teens are able to purchase it. Smoke shops will not sell Salvia to minors…. Users claim Salvia can lead to uncontrolled laughter or dreamy almost sleepwalking-type of behavior. The effects can last from five minutes to two hours.”

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One type of teen crisis intervention that continues to be hotly debated is random drug testing conducted in our nation’s schools. Even parents who are well aware of the dangers that teen drug abuse represents for their teenagers are concerned about, not only civil rights issues, but the continued intrusion into the family by the state through the schools.

“Joe Newcomb, founder of Drug-Free Clubs of America, has seen many things in his lifelong career as a Cincinnati firefighter.

But the worst of all is seeing the lifeless body of a young person who has overdosed, he said at an information meeting for parents Sept. 12 at Edgewood High School.

Randomly drug testing high school students is just the latest — and perhaps most controversial — in a long line of steps to curb teen drug use at Edgewood High School.

Just two weeks from the first round of random drug testing, debate on online communities in Trenton, such as trentontalk.com, have generated several pages worth of discussion on random drug testing.”

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In the case of this Ohio community, the schools only intend to test those kids who are enrolled in extracurricular activities, though some towns have pondered random testing across the entire student population.

There are many questions that need to be sorted out and time will tell if drug testing is a good deterrent or if determined teen drug users will find a way around it.

Perhaps teen age drug abuse could be defeated by spotlighting the kingpins and drug cartel chiefs who provide the pot smoking or cocaine snorting teenager with their high. Since teenage rhetoric is full of criticism for “big business”, maybe they need an education about how their drug habits support one of the biggest businesses on the planet; narcotics trafficking.

Well, you can score one for the good guys because one of those drug kingpins is now behind bars.

“Only Osama bin Laden had a higher price on his head than cocaine lord Diego Montoya, No. 2 on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Now he’s in custody, and the U.S. owes Colombia a debt of gratitude.

The Colombian army’s capture of Pablo Escobar’s successor couldn’t have been more satisfying. Montoya, capo of Colombia’s Norte del Valle cartel, whose spies tracked U.S. Navy warship positions to ensure control of 70% of the cocaine headed for the U.S., got busted Monday wearing only his dirty underwear.

“I lost,” was the toppled kingpin’s only observation.

The rest of us won.

“This is huge,” DEA spokesman Steve Robertson told IBD. “This strikes at the head of the source for all the cocaine coming into the U.S. This was one of the most powerful cocaine organizations in the world, and when an organization loses someone of this stature, it’s going to have a tremendous negative impact. … We salute the Colombian government.”

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Related:Teen Drug Abuse Should Be Fought by Teens Too

Teen age drug abuse has become a concern for many parents, but many of these parents don’t know where to turn for help and answers. There are many resources and information for parents needing teen crisis interventions, treatment centers, and the signs and symptoms of drug abuse. Some major companies are stepping up and campaigning for teen drug abuse awareness in the hopes that parents and teens can change the staggering numbers of cases that seem to be rising every year.

“MetLife Foundation will begin the next phase of its award-winning parenting skills campaign, airing education messages created in cooperation with the nonprofit Partnership for a Drug-Free America(R) on radio stations in 11 markets nationwide through November. The radio campaign is backed by web resources and a free brochure for parents.
The campaign features radio messages, in both English and Spanish, which stress to parents the importance of talking with kids about drugs and alcohol, and staying involved in their children’s lives in order to keep them healthy and drug free. Disturbingly, at a time when teens are faced with new threats such as the intentional abuse of prescription (Rx) painkillers and over-the- counter (OTC) cough medicines, the number of frequent discussions between parents and teens about the risks of drug abuse has decreased significantly.”

Many feel that school is where teens are learning about saying no to drugs, but that isn’t enough, parents need to stay on top of teaching the morals and values their children need to make the right choices in life.

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KD