The Cost of Drugs: Starting young

LIMA — When young children are introduced to using drugs, it doesn’t happen in a back alley or on the edge of a darkened playground.

For those few youngsters who start getting high before getting to high school, it usually begins at home.

A few years ago years ago, a fourth-grader in Lima stole marijuana from his parents, took it to school and began selling it, said Bob Stoodt, a juvenile investigator with the Lima Police Department.

“With the kids we know it’s very common because they live it. Their parents are doing it at home, the mom’s boyfriend, whatever the case may be. ... Those kids, that’s their life,” Stoodt said. “They know nothing else.”

Children in middle school and younger drifting toward the drug culture are by far the exception. Most middle-school pupils are more interested in a first crush or convincing their parents to buy that new T-rated video game they’re certain everyone else has.

What many children learn at that age can dictate what decisions they’ll make when they’re older.

“You’ve got kids no matter what you say or do, they’re going to do drugs or alcohol. Then you’ve got kids that no matter what you say or do are not going to. And then you’ve got those kids right there in the middle, and you may be able to influence them one way or another,” Stoodt said.

Kids in the middle

As the Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer for all of Auglaize County, Deputy Samuel Blank visits nine schools and speaks with about 1,600 children a year. The majority of his pupils are fifth-graders.

“You have some kids that will talk to me about things they’ve seen with drug abuse. I’ve heard just about everything,” he said. “It’s sad to hear that, but some are familiar with it.”

As much as kids may think they know about swallowing prescription pills or smoking pot, Blank said the same students sometimes come to him in tears, afraid parents who smoke cigarettes are soon headed to their deathbed.

“In fifth grade, it surprised me. They have absolutely no clue how harmful this stuff can be,” he said.

In DARE, children learn about the dangers of illicit drugs, alcohol and tobacco, but the program also emphasizes the importance of good decision-making.

“The things you’re looking at about drug education, you need to be proactive and not reactive,” said Jean Snyder, principal at South Middle School in Lima. “When you’re being reactive, it’s almost too late. You’re talking about punitive stuff. We don’t want to be that way,”

This school year will be the first for Lima City Schools without DARE in years, though Stoodt and the Lima Police Department are developing a similar program.

In the mean time, South Middle School has its own Safe Neighborhoods grant to help educate children on the dangers of risky behavior. Among other things, the grant has provided for an on-site social worker and advanced staff training. The school also opened its new South Leadership and Technology Academy.

“If you feel that you’re really leading and in control of your life, you don’t need other things,” Snyder said. “You’re not looking outside of a safe, good choice peer group. You’re not looking to find a new family that may involve gangs or things like that. You’re more satisfied by your surroundings, and you feel empowered by that.”

Future of programs

The Lima Police Department cut DARE two years ago, but Stoodt worked part-time through the Allen County Sheriff’s Office to continue the program in the city schools in 2007 and 2008. With the sheriff’s office’s own budget problems, that cooperative effort stopped this school year.

A $31,000 grant from the Ohio Attorney General’s office will allow Stoodt to bring a similar, although smaller-scale, program back to Lima’s North, South and West middle schools.

Between personnel and materials, Putnam County Sheriff Jim Beutler said DARE can cost $50,000 to $60,000 a year. Struggling to fund road patrols, Beutler eliminated his county’s DARE program earlier this year.

With one of two Safe Schools Healthy Students grants issued in Ohio, the Putnam County Educational Services Center looks to pick up where the law enforcement program left off. The ESC will get $1.14 million a year for the next four years for programming, including drug and alcohol prevention.

“Whether this will be enough to replace it or how it will work remains to be seen,” said Jan Osborn, the Putnam County schools superintendent. “But we’re really fortunate to have some options coming up here through the Safe Schools Healthy Students grant that will pick up some of the areas that were lost.”

Officials will meet with school administrators in the coming months to develop a plan. The program is required to be evidence-based.

“We just don’t think out loud and think, ‘Well, that would be a good grade to do.’ We try to base it on data information and make data-driven decisions on where things are happening,” said Kathy Schroeder, the center’s substance-abuse education coordinator.

Earlier is better

Most drug prevention programs are directed at fifth grade students, but officials say the topic should be broached as soon as possible.

“They need to know the consequences — the health effects, the consequences of being arrested, whatever the case may be — but they need to know the consequences at an early age,” Stoodt said. “The earlier we get ahold of them, the better.”

Parents can play a major role in that, but Stood said they’re often shy to do it.

“Parents either don’t want to talk to their kids about it because they don’t want to think their kids will ever get involved in it or they think if they talk to their kid about it it’ll spark their interest. I hear all kinds of excuses,” Stoodt said.

Stoodt and others suggest parents begin talking to their children as early as first grade. Many prevention programs start as early as kindergarten.

Fifth graders offer educators and law enforcement that one last chance before independence starts calling.

“That’s basically what begins to happen in fifth and sixth grade,” Snyder said. “They want to be grown up. Psychology, physiological changes happen in kids that age, and they’re starting to have that desire: ‘I can do this on my own.’ How many times do you hear that?”

For law enforcement-led programs, it can introduce impressionable children to a different, more personal side of law enforcement, letting them get to know the person behind the badge and beyond the gun belt.

The positive decision-making, self-confidence building portion of drug prevention programs can be equally important. If kids feel better about themselves, they’re not looking for something else to fill that void, Snyder said.

Studies on DARE’s effectiveness are as conflicting as they are numerous. Still, Blank is confident in DARE’s approach.

“Like I tell these kids, I give you all the answers. It’s up to you,” he said. “I can’t sit there, hold your hand. Your friends, your parents can’t do it. This is something you have to understand is bad for you. It’s only going to bring you bad stuff in your life.”