Poland drug use a warning to suburban parents

Drugs -- including alcohol -- are blamed for more than half the instances of college date-rape across the country. But the danger isn't limited to college-age women. In Poland Village and Poland Township, police are concerned that the date-rape drug GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) is implicated in a number of incidents involving young teens. Once again, parents must be reminded that it's not only inner city parents who must protect their children from drug abuse. The suburbs are hardly immune.
The worry about the increased use of GHB was underscored this weekend when a 14-year-old Columbiana girl told officers she may have been drugged and raped at a party in a Poland home over the weekend.
Investigating the report, police learned that teens at the party were using certain types of drugs but could not determine if the girl had taken something voluntarily or she had been given the substance.
Drug abuse problems in Poland emerged a year ago when nine Poland Seminary High School students were arrested on drug charges -- six for drug trafficking.
In keeping with the school district's zero-tolerance policy, two of the students were expelled for 80 days -- the maximum allowed under Ohio law -- and four were suspended for shorter periods. But parents and teens should also know that school suspension is not the worst that could happen. Even in juvenile courts, misdemeanor drug abuse can result in fines, community service and jail time. What's more, those found guilty of drug offenses become ineligible for federal student loans: a high price to pay for adolescent stupidity or rebellion.
Lock up medicines: Last year, the drugs involved were Xanax, Oxycontin and marijuana. Now, police say that youngsters are more likely to use Ecstasy and prescription pills, which may be stolen from their own or friends' households or brought home from college by older brothers and sisters. So Lucinda Caparso, youth diversion specialist with the Poland Township Police Department, recommends that home medicine cabinets be kept under lock and key.
But more than that, parents can't be blind to the kinds of trouble unsupervised young people can be getting into.
Caparso discourages parents from dropping their children off at popular recreation facilities that have no adult supervision. "They can't be used as baby-sitting services," she said. She suggests that one parent be present for each group of five or six kids. If nothing else, she said, "A parent's presence acts as deterrent for illegal activity."
Caparso estimates that as many as 30 percent of Poland teens may be consuming drugs and alcohol -- either experimentally, occasionally or regularly. She said 60 percent of those who have gone through the youth diversion process were arrested for using drugs or alcohol.
The best defense against youth drug abuse is parental involvement. Parents who demand to know where their children are going and with whom they are going stand the best chance of keeping their kids safe.