By Julie Rooney/Enterprise staff writer
Published Jan 10, 2007 - 13:53:28 CST.

Ever hear of “skittling” or “robotripping”? Chances are your teenager has.

Parents got a crash course in drug and alcohol abuse among Davis teenagers Tuesday night at a parent education program sponsored by the Emerson Junior High School PTA. Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto, Davis Police Department's Trease Petersen and Christy Crandell, author of “Lost & Found: A Mother and Son Find Victory Over Teen Drug Addiction,” spoke for almost two hours to a crowd of concerned parents.

The speakers shared alarming facts and statistics. Did you know that today's marijuana is up to 25 times more potent than the marijuana of the '70s and '80s? It's also addictive and is the second leading drug problem in Davis, right behind alcohol abuse.

Alcohol is the No. 1 drug of choice for teens - and the No. 1 killer.

And it's not only alcohol and marijuana. It's teenagers raiding their parents' medicine cabinets for cold medicine, pain pills and whatever else they can find. For a quick high, kids will “robotrip,” downing an entire bottle of Robitussin cough medicine. Or, they may try “skittling,” the slang term for abusing the cold medication Coricidin, a red pill that looks identical to Skittles candy.

Not in my town, you say?

“We have a huge drug and alcohol problem in Davis,” Petersen, youth intervention specialist for the Davis Police Department, told the crowd.

Calling the situation “out of control,” she told parents that kids are looking for limits and boundaries, and that as parents they have to give them that.

She plans to help. Recently hired by the Davis Police Department, she soon will introduce an anti-drug and alcohol program that is targeted to junior high school students. And no more, she warns, will kids get a slap on the wrist for a drug or alcohol first offense. Instead, they will go through a six-week program with her.

Crandell, the evening's keynote speaker, is the mother of a teenage drug addict.
      
She told the story of raising her family in the small town of Rocklin - a town she chose for its low crime rate and good schools.

“Our two communities mirror each other in a lot of ways,” she said of Rocklin and Davis.

Doing her very best to raise her children, she said she was a stay-at-home mom who took her children to play groups and volunteered as the room mother, while her husband was a Little League coach.

“My house was the house kids wanted to come to,” she said.

That all changed the day her 17-year-old told her he had a drug problem. She admitted him to treatment facilities three separate times over the course of a year. But just three days after turning 18, he committed a string of armed robberies along Interstate 80. He is now serving a 13-year prison sentence at Folsom Prison.

It wasn't until her son was almost an adult that she discovered his drinking started at the young age of 13. She was shocked when he began spilling the secrets of how he and his friends abused drugs and alcohol without getting caught.

“I was ignorant about the depth and the scope of the drug world,” she said. “I was one of those parents who said ‘not my child.' ”

Today, she speaks to PTAs about what's going on in the teen drug culture. She tells them stories of activities like “pharming parties,” a particularly scary way teens get high. It begins with kids raiding the family's medicine cabinet. Next up, the partygoers pour their pills into a big bowl and everyone grabs a handful. They down the pills with vodka and “see what happens,” she said.

But, she wasn't only telling horrifying tales of drug use. She also offered practical solutions, like locking the liquor and medicine cabinets, and knowing where your child is at all times. She emphasized that cell phone contact isn't always good enough. Have them use a land line, she said, and get caller ID, so you have proof of where they are.

She also proposed that parents drug-test their children if they suspect there is a problem. Admitting that parents are often hesitant to take this step, she says it's the only way to prove a child is using drugs.

“You don't take your kid's word for it when they tell you they got good grades,” she told the crowd. “You want to see the report card.”

She also told parents to trust their intuition and do a “gut check.”

“You know when there is something off about your kid,” she said.

And finally, she told parents they have to do a better job of networking about what's going on with their children.

“Our kids are good at it,” she said, listing sources like e-mails, MySpace and cell phones as ways teens communicate.

She concluded her talk by reminding parents that times have changed.

“Today there is no social stigma for teens using drugs,” she said. “It's not one group of kids.”

Sheriff Prieto offered his own advice. Working in law enforcement for almost 40 years, he says he's seen a change in parenting.

“Parents have become so permissive,” he said.

An Emerson parent and the father of five daughters, he urged parents to “pay attention to what's going on with your children” and to “make children take responsibility for their actions.”

The presentations were followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience.

Crandell's book, “Lost & Found: A Mother and Son Find Victory Over Teen Drug Addiction,” can be ordered online at www.StopTeenDrugAddiction.com.

- Reach Julie Rooney at jrooney@davisenterprise.net or 747-8051.