Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009 | 5:14 p.m.
Homework and school activities. Sports. Religion.
These are the types of things the youth of Southern Nevada — tempted daily by the local drug and gang culture — should be encouraged to participate in.
It may seem obvious that teens should be steered toward those positive activities. But police say the message bears repeating because of a troubling trend in which teens are not only using alcohol and illegal drugs, but also are abusing legal prescription and over-the-counter drugs.
No part of the Las Vegas Valley is immune from this problem. For instance, in Boulder City, a survey was given to 100 students at Boulder City High School.
The results: 52 had used alcohol in their lifetimes, and 23 said they had in the past month. Twenty-six teens said they'd smoked marijuana ever, and 16 said they had within a month. Seventeen had abused prescription drugs in their lifetimes, three said they'd used methamphetamines and five said they'd used cocaine.
Perhaps the most troubling finding from the survey was the number of students who had abused prescription drugs — drugs often stolen undetected from their parents or family members.
"Some kids nowadays are having 'pharm' parties," Metro Police Detective Ashton Packe said during a recent drug awareness event. "They raid their parents' medicine cabinets, mix up the pills and take them."
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's Enterprise Area Command recently hosted "Generation Rx" at Spring Valley High School to raise awareness among both students and parents about problems associated with prescription drug abuse.
The Narcotic Education Foundation of Nevada and the Drug Abuse Awareness Team co-hosted the event, and along with Metro should be commended for keeping this issue in the spotlight.
But as police and drug abuse experts point out, it's going to take more than police and agencies fighting drug abuse to solve the problem.
Parents, extended families, churches, athletic leagues and teams, libraries and other institutions that offer activities for children and teens are all part of the solution.
Detective Packe speaks with some authority on the matter. He's a member of the Narcotic Education Foundation of Nevada, a group of local law enforcement officers dedicated to drug prevention.
He says the key for teenagers is to get involved and focus their energy on activities that are not drug-related, such as the aforementioned school activities, homework, sports or religion.
"We're never going to arrest our way out of drug abuse in this country," he said. "We could build prisons until we're paying 1,000-percent tax hikes and it's not going to stop it. If we can reduce consumer demand, we can reduce drug abuse."
Las Vegas resident Rose Broderick agrees that family influence is critical to helping teens avoid drugs. Broderick is especially concerned about one of the latest drugs of choice: cough syrup.
"A lot of the cough syrups are bubble gum flavored or cherry flavored," said Broderick, who has two grandsons in high school. "Small children already like those tastes, and it could continue when they get older."
Broderick said communication with teens is important, and we agree.
"We talk a lot about the effects of drugs and how to avoid them," she said. "It doesn't matter if I'm driving them to school in the morning or if it's at dinner. We're all very open."
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