Firght Student Drug Abuse - Information for Parents

Birdville district forum aims to help parents counter drug abuse
(Source: By DIANE SMITH dianesmith@star-telegram.com)

Town experiences 16 drug related deaths in three months.


Prom, graduation and summer break are important times in teens’ lives, but they are also times in which many youths make poor choices about drugs and alcohol.

The Birdville school district wants to help parents by educating them today during a forum titled "The Real Story About Drug Use."

"We want to give them some information that gives them the warning signs and things to look for," said Donna Layer, coordinator of guidance and counseling services.

The forum will include discussions on trends and concerns, emergency services and the law. It comes as law enforcement agencies have investigated several drug-related deaths in Tarrant County.

From January to mid-March, the medical examiner’s office has confirmed 16 heroin-related deaths. Four other deaths are being investigated as possibly heroin-related. One drug-related death involved an accidental overdose of the drug Ecstasy.

Layer said the recent headlines heightened the need to hold a community discussion. Another key reason for the forum, part of a federal Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities grant, is to remind parents that teen drug and alcohol abuse continues to be a community worry.

"None of these things ever go away," Layer said. "Just because you are not hearing about it out on the forefront doesn’t mean it’s not an area of concern."

Here are some questions and answers about the forum and drug issues.

Is teen drug and alcohol abuse still a concern?

While the issue surfaces in cycles in the news media, it is always a concern, said Layer, adding that the community can’t become blase.

"Sometimes our kids just believe they are indestructible," she said.

What are some warning signs that my teen is abusing drugs or alcohol?

The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry states that these may be warning signs: a drop in school performance, a change in friends, delinquent behavior and deterioration in family relationships. Go to the academy’s Web site ( www.aacap.org) for more information.

Where can I get educational information about drugs?

The National Institute on Drug Abuse Web site ( www.nida.nih.gov) details drugs and how they affect the body. It also has educational materials for teens, parents and educators.

Opiate and Meth Abuse Rates Not Declining

Highlights for 2007 Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS)

The report provides information on the demographic and substance abuse characteristics of the 1.8 million annual admissions to treatment for abuse of alcohol and drugs in facilities that report to individual State administrative data systems. TEDS does not include all admissions to substance abuse treatment. In general, facilities reporting TEDS data are those that receive State alcohol and/or drug agency funds (including Federal Block Grant funds) for the provision of alcohol and/or drug treatment services.

Five substances accounted for 96 percent of all TEDS admissions in 2007:
alcohol (40 percent);
opiates (19 percent; primarily heroin);
mar­ijuana/hashish (16 percent);
cocaine (13 percent); and stimulants
(8 percent, primarily methamphetamine.

More than two-thirds (69 percent) of all alcohol-only admissions were non- Hispanic White

For primary heroin admissions, the average age at admission was 36 years.

Just over half (53 percent) of primary non-heroin opiate admissions were male

Non-heroin opiates admissions are increasing from from 1 percent of all admissions in 1997 to 5 percent in 2007. These drugs include codeine, hydrocodone, hydro­morphone, meperidine, morphine, opium, oxycodone, pentazocine, propoxyphene, tramadol, and any other drug with morphine-like effects. Non-prescription use of methadone is not included.

Methamphetamine/Amphetamine and Other Stimulants* * The proportion of admissions for abuse of methamphetamine/amphetamine and other stimulants increased from 4 percent in 1997 to a high of 9 percent in 2005. In 2006 admissions decreased to 8 percent and remained at 8 percent in 2007.

Workplace Drug Testing Overview

Drug tests in the USA can be divided into two general groups, federally and non-federally regulated testing.

Federally regulated drug testing started when Ronald Reagan enacted executive order 12564, requiring all federal employees refrain from using illegal substances in specified DOT regulated occupations. Drug testing guidelines and processes, in these areas exclusively, are established and regulated (by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or SAMHSA, formerly under the direction of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or NIDA) require that companies who use professional drivers, specified safety sensitive transportation and/or oil and gas related occupations, and certain federal employers, test them for the presence of certain drugs. These test classes were established decades ago, and include five specific drug groups. They do not account for current drug usage patterns. For example, SAMHSA / DOT tests exclude semi-synthetic opioids, such as oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, etc., and other prescription medications that are widely abused in the United States

Non-federally regulated or General workplace drug testing allows for far more effective drug testing procedures. While SAMHSA / NIDA guidelines only allow laboratories to report quantitative results for the " NIDA-5 " / " SAMHSA-5 " for their official SAMHSA-approve tests, many drug testing laboratories and on-site tests offer a wider, " more appropriate " set of drug screens to better detect current drug use patterns. As noted above, these tests include synthetic pain killers such as Oxycodone (Oxycontin, Percocet), Oxymorphone, Hydrocodone (Vicodin), Hydromorphone. Some also include benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, Klonopin, Restoril) and barbiturates in other drug panels (a "panel" is a predetermined subset of tests run). The confirmation test (usually GC/MS, or LC/MS/MS) can tell the difference between chemically similar drugs such as methamphetamine and methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy). In the absence of detectable amounts of methamphetamine in the sample, the lab wold report the sample as negative, or report it as positive if present.

Parents & Teachers Need the Education

Parents & Teachers are the Problem?

The below is demonstrable of the lack of drug education on the part of many parents & teachers.

Some parents view random drug testing as a "punishment" or "lack of trust", when in reality it is a BENEFIT to students, parents,and schools. It you consider that over 20,000 people die annually due to drug overdose, and millions of students regularly abuse prescription drugs (this is the problem NOT mariujana), and illict drugs such as meth & cocaine... combined with the fact that it take 3.5 years for a parent to learn their child abuses drugs...plus, even trained DRE (drug recognition experts fail to identify a drug abuser 90% of the time... and well, you get the terrible picture.

Concerned about random drug testing


Tuesday, June 24, 2008 12:49 PM CDT



I have been following with interest the subject of Bandera ISD's policy of random drug testing at the middle and high schools.

As the mother of four children, I am concerned about my kids' health and safety when they are at school. I, like all parents, desire an educational environment which nurtures, challenges and supports my children.

However, try as I may, I cannot see how random drug testing is compatible with this goal. The only thing I see it doing is punishing both the innocent and the guilty.

As a former high school teacher, I can attest that, in my experience, it is not very difficult to identify a student who is under the influence of drugs.

Why are such Draconian measures now being proposed to do the same thing that an observant teacher could have done without disturbing the learning environment?

I applaud Mr. Zavorka's recent appeal to school board members to truly think about the implications of this policy before adopting it. He certainly gave me pause.
As C.S. Lewis wrote, "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive."

The citizens of Bandera should consider this before supporting the random drug testing of their children.

Schools Infested with Drugs

New Study: Schools Infested with Drugs - 2007

A New Study from the National Center on Addiction & Substance Abuse (CASA) suggests that US Schools are infested with drugs. The survey revealed that at least once a week on their school grounds, 31 percent of high school students (more than four million) and nine percent of middle school students (more than one million) see illegal drugs used, sold, students high and/or drunk. At least weekly, 17 percent of all high and middle school students (4.4 million) personally see classmates high on drugs at school.