By Carolyn Cole
Published on January 24, 2008

Mustang’s Michael Snowden worked more than two decades as an undercover drug enforcement agent, but he says none of the arrests made a difference.

“As scary as it sounds, give me 24 hours and a couple of undercovers, and we can buy heroin in Mustang,” he told parents. “We can buy anything we want in Mustang, Oklahoma, Canadian County.”

Snowden, an Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics educator, was among experts gathered for Mustang School District’s Parent University Jan. 17 at Mustang Centennial Elementary. Sixty parents attended classes ranging from youth drug abuse, suicide among children, self-mutilation and Internet safety to possible health dangers related to caffeinated energy drinks, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, as well as required standardized testing.

Snowden told parents he believes drug prevention experts were mistaken when they used metaphors and hyperbole to explain the dangers of marijuana, alcohol and other substances. Instead of frying an egg, he said youth should be given science-based drug education.

“We have to tell them the honest-to-goodness facts,” he said. “We have to tell them about making decisions that affect the rest of their lives.”

While Oklahoma students reported using less marijuana and methamphetamine in spring 2007 compared to 2005, Snowden said he doesn’t believe overall drug use has decreased. About 5.5 percent of Oklahoma students reported using meth, down from 7.1 percent in 2005, and slightly less than one-third of students reported using marijuana, down from 39.3 percent.

Snowden said students are using less illegal drugs, but they are “pharming” from their family medicine cabinet. Mustang police reported four incidents in January, two from residents who reported prescription medications missing from their home medicine cabinets. In the other two cases, residents reported they left prescription medications in their cars, and they were taken during auto burglaries with other possessions.

“If I go out on the street and I buy a stimulant, cocaine, it may be 2 percent, it may be 20 percent, it may be nothing,” Snowden said. “If I go buy some pills, some Lortab, I know exactly what it is. It is pharmaceutically produced.”

People have a misconception that, because prescription medication comes from a doctor, it is safe, Snowden said. Medications, even when used properly, have risks of side effects, allergic reactions and complications from being used with other drugs, he said. However, he said some youths pay little attention, dumping pills from prescription medication bottles into a large bowl and passing it around at parties.

“You reach in, take a handful — gulp,” he said. “There you go — that’s faith.”

Psychotropic drugs fit into three categories — hallucinogenics, such as marijuana and LSD, stimulants and depressants. Most prescription medications that are abused are stimulants, which speed up the heart rate, body temperature and breathing, or are depressants, which lower heart rate and breathing.

Medications used to treat hyperactivity attention deficit disorder, such as Ritalin and Adderall, are stimulants. The most common stimulant is caffeine, and other examples are cocaine and methamphetamine.
Pain-relieving drugs, such as hydrocodone, oxycodone and Percusett, are depressants. Other depressants include alcohol, heroin and Methodone.

Overdosing on either stimulants or depressants can lead to death, Snowden said, as the body’s functions speed toward heart attack or slow until the person stops breathing. Taking a combination puts the body onto a roller-coaster ride, which stresses the person’s organs as they race from one extreme to another, also possibly resulting in death, he said.

He said drug users are also crushing up time-release painkillers, such as Oxycontin, taking medication meant to dissolve over 12 hours all at once.

“They are chewing them (tablets), they are crushing them up and snorting them,” he said. “The really hard-core folks are melting them in a spoonful of water and injecting them into a vein.”

Over-the-counter medications are also commonly abused. Snowden said his son works at a pharmacy and commonly finds empty bottles of cough syrup after someone chugged the substance in the bathroom. A dextromethorphan overdose can cause bleeding in the brain and increases in blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature.
Oklahoma lawmakers approved legislation last spring urging pharmacies to store cough syrup behind the counter and keep records of people purchasing it, but no changes were required.

“We don’t want to tell grandma that if she has a cough or cold she can’t send her 15-year-old grandson to the pharmacy,” Snowden said.

Teens are also abusing inhalants, which he said would be impossible to control. Snowden said he once counted more than 150 different products in his grocery store that could be used as inhalants. Drug users inhale the propellant from aerosol cans, which then deprives the brain of oxygen, killing brain cells.

“The kids, especially in Mustang, they love that compressed air that you use to clean your keyboards,” Snowden said.

It’s impossible to keep all possible drugs from teenagers’ hands, he said. The best thing a parent can do is be informed, stay involved in their children’s lives and talk to them about the dangers, he said.

Above all, Snowden said parents should meet their children’s friends. If their child is keeping friends from their parents, he said there is a problem, whether it involves drugs, sex or defiance.

“Don’t be upset if your kids are hanging out with those kind of freaky, different sort of kids as long as they are bringing them to you,” he said.

If a parent suspects their child has tried drugs, Snowden said they shouldn’t hesitate to confront the youth.

“I’m not going into my kid’s room and ripping them apart all of the time — I have no cause to do that,” he said. “They haven’t given me any sign of alarm. But if I need to, the Nazi will come out, and I will tear it down.”
Youth believe they are invincible, and he said it’s a battle to convince them they aren’t bulletproof. Drug use has become so prevalent, Snowden said law enforcement agencies, including the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, have trouble finding agents to hire who haven’t used when they were younger.

Self-mutilation

Therapist Keely Humphrey sees teenagers with deep scars crisscrossing their arms and legs from cutting themselves daily in her practice.

The scars will never fade and are a physical reminder of the emotional pain boiling beneath the surface, she said.

“It’s a big growing phenomenon among teenagers. Kids as young as yours are starting to do it,” she said to parents with children in elementary school.

When youth start cutting, Humphrey said it starts with superficial scratches and then goes deeper. They use anything available — scissors, razor blades, kitchen knives or pieces of sharp plastic or glass.

“If they get so deep that they cut a main artery, they can bleed to death,” she said.

For most of the teenagers she sees at Aargon Academy in Norman, Humphrey said the youth are struggling with depression sometimes tied to breaking up with a girlfriend or boyfriend, their parents’ divorce or remarriage, financial problems or a close death in the family. She said others have a chemical imbalance that could require prescription medication to treat.

Youth have told her they started cutting themselves to try and release the emotions they can’t express. Others find the physical pain covers up the emotional pain or that they hurt so badly emotionally, they don’t feel the cuts, she said. Another boy told her he liked to watch himself bleed.

Like a drug addiction, Humphrey said the first high a cutter experiences is never re-attainable, and the youth cuts deeper and more often in search of that feeling and release.

“Arms are the most common places to cut, but a lot of them, if they really want to keep it hidden, are going to cut on the inside of their thighs,” she said. “They might cut on their belly, sometimes back of the feet.”

If a child refuses to wear short sleeves in the summer, Humphrey said it’s possible the youth is hiding something. Other signs of depression could include anger, changes in sleep behavior or weight, trouble making decisions or concentrating, sadness and feelings of worthlessness.

A parent told Humphrey her son is receiving treatment for cutting his arms, but she’s scared he could be cutting himself on a less visible part of his body. She said she isn’t certain how to ask him without making the youth feel embarrassed.

Humphrey suggested asking a close male relative, such as a father, a favorite uncle or cousin, for help. If that isn’t possible, she suggested taking the boy for a physical and added the mother shouldn’t ignore her concern.

If self-mutilation is left untreated, she said youth could injure themselves so badly it results in death, or the depression becomes so severe the teen commits suicide. Teenagers, young adults in their early 20s and the elderly are the most at risk for suicide, she said.

The number of elementary schoolchildren who are being affected by depression seems to be increasing, Humphrey said, based on her experience at the treatment center.
“It’s earlier and earlier every year — it’s scary,” she said.

Internet safety

Youth post the most intimate details of their lives on the Internet, but more than their friends are reading their Web sites, Technology Specialist Dedra Stafford said.

For parents, learning about the Internet and technology is like learning a second language. Stafford, a former middle school teacher, warned parents their children are fluent when it comes to technology.

“Those are not real things to us,” she said. “The kids go in there, and you are not even sure exactly what it is they are doing.”