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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

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Marijuana use a concern at BHS

By JODIE TWEED

Staff Writer

The first time Brainerd High School Assistant Principal Andrea Rusk met the male student we'll call M. he sprinted out of her office as she tried to confront him about being high on marijuana.

But the 17-year-old Brainerd boy, now a junior who while battling a serious marijuana addiction assaulted a teacher and another student, ran away many times and had several stints in and out of rehab and juvenile detention centers, has now been clean and sober for the past 13 months.

It is now his goal to warn parents and other students about the dangers of marijuana use. He hopes to help others as he has been helped by his aunt and uncle, who now have custody of him, and his girlfriend. They're people he calls his "heroes" for saving him from himself.

"(M.) is one of the nicest boys here at Brainerd High School," Rusk said. "He's a completely different kid. My first day here (at BHS), (M.) left for lunch and got high and that's when I met him. He looks night and day from where he was a year and a half ago."

Brainerd High School, not unlike other high schools in the lakes area, has a growing problem of marijuana use among students that crosses all socioeconomic barriers. Some teens say marijuana is more easily accessible in Brainerd than alcohol. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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Rusk said she is deeply concerned about marijuana use at BHS. She said students of all socioeconomic backgrounds, even high-achieving students and athletes, are using marijuana. Marijuana use is not as easily detectable as alcohol. School administrators and teachers may suspect marijuana use but the only way they can know for sure if a student is using is if the student's parents take the student to have a urinary analysis.

"There are popular kids using," said Rusk. "It cuts across all social lines."

Rusk said she will call the parents of a student suspected of using and ask them if they also have suspicions that their child is using marijuana. Nine times out of 10, she said, the parents do suspect something is going on with their child. She said a small percentage of parents have told her that they don't view marijuana use as a problem since they smoked it, too, while in high school. But the vast majority of parents are fearful and unsure of what to do, she said. They want their child to stop using by getting them help, but don't want their child to suffer punitive consequences like being kicked out of a sport or fine arts program.

"It's not about catching them, it's about getting them help," said Jessica Wales, a mental health practitioner at Northern Pines Mental Health Center that contracts with the school district to work with BHS students with chemical dependency and mental health issues. The marijuana problem at BHS is "huge," Wales said.

Parents need to be on the watch for marijuana and drug paraphernalia, that come in all shapes and sizes, as indicators that their teens are using. This is a small sample of marijuana and paraphernalia that have been seized by investigators with the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Department. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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Marijuana use, said M., is so prevalent and accessible in Brainerd, as well as at BHS, that the community needs to be aware that many teens are using, even those most people wouldn't suspect. M. smoked pot for the first time at age 11, which he got from his sister's friend who had been babysitting him. He got hooked on the drug at 13 and began smoking pot daily, often before, after and during school. One of his friends drained his entire $5,000 savings account to buy marijuana during the summer before their ninth-grade year. He said his parents also smoked pot and never confronted him about his drug use. He said he felt like no one cared about him. M. eventually moved on to harder drugs before he became clean and sober. His probation officer told him he would have likely been dead within months if he would not have quit using drugs.

M. said getting pot was never a problem, even as a junior high school student.

"I lived on a block in southeast Brainerd where, no kidding, you can get it on every block," M. said.

A BHS senior we'll call A. has been clean and sober for the past year and 10 months. She started smoking pot in seventh grade with her friends, becoming addicted to the drug in ninth grade. She transferred to Pillager High School for her ninth-grade year to get away from her addicted friends in Brainerd but fell in with a similar crowd. She smoked pot before and after school at Pillager, she said, and started smoking crack that year with a friend's mother. Her drug addiction also included popping prescription pills and she began cutting herself, a cry for help. She returned to BHS her sophomore year where she would skip school often and sit in cars with her friends in the school parking lot and smoke pot before BHS hired three security guards to patrol the schoolgrounds.

Warning signs of teen marijuana use

Parents need to be aware of changes in their teen's behavior.

What to look for:

Withdrawal, depression, fatigue, carelessness with grooming, hostility and deteriorating relationships with family members and friends.

Changes in academic performance, increased absenteeism or truancy, lost interest in sports or other favorite activities and changes in sleeping or eating habits.

Parents should also look for:

Signs of drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Odor on clothes and in the bedroom

Use of incense and other deodorizers

Use of eye drops

Clothing, posters, jewelry, etc., that promotes drug use

Information: National Institute on Drug Abuse

"The people who leave for lunch are the people who use," said A. Both she and M. said that places like the Brainerd Public Library parking lot, located adjacent to the high school's north parking lot, are prime locations that teens will go to hang out and smoke pot during school.

In addition to using drugs, A. would take vodka in water bottles to school. Like M., she also ran away from home many times and was in and out of rehab and juvenile detention centers before becoming clean and sober.

"I look at my friends I used to use with and they're all dropouts," said M. "They're not here."

During M.'s effective skills class at BHS they had a cake for him to celebrate his one year of sobriety. He has spoken to Forestview students about his personal experience in hopes they won't go down the same difficult path he did. He talks to his peers and encourages them to stop using marijuana.

Both A. and M. are looking at colleges to attend after they graduate from BHS. They are working with Jane Galloway, a mental health worker from Northern Pines Mental Health Center, who is helping them recover the school credits they have lost because of their drug use.

"There's no question we're concerned about it," Scott Doss, principal at Pillager High School, said about marijuana use among students. "We have the same struggles that our neighboring schools have. How big of a problem is it? I don't know."

Doss said he is interested to find out the results of the 2007 Minnesota Student Survey, which will be given to all sixth-, ninth- and 12th-grade students in the state from now until April 15. The survey, which is voluntary and confidential, asks students about a variety of behaviors, including their marijuana use. Doss said he is interested in finding out if marijuana use has increased among teens since the survey was last administered in 2004.

Rusk said parents need to take an honest look at their teens' behavior and have an open conversation with them about drug use. She and other school professionals recommended that parents who suspect their teens are using take them in for a random urinary analysis as a critical first step to uncovering what drugs they are taking.

"It's tough love," said M., who said he later hugged and thanked his probation officer for helping him recover from his drug addiction. "If you love them, you're going to put them into treatment."

JODIE TWEED can be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.

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