Underground drug culture hiding in plain sight

SANDPOINT — There is a widening generation gap that most parents are unaware of, one that has little to do with shifting world views or social values. It does have plenty to do with drugs and alcohol, however, and how, in today’s teenage and young adult world, those substances are found and consumed.

In fact, there is an underground drug culture hiding in plain sight within that generation gap.

That culture continues to rapidly evolve, according to Jermaine Galloway, a veteran Boise police officer and popular North American speaker on the topic of teen drug and alcohol abuse. He spoke in a rapid-fire, eye-opening detail Thursday night in front of about 45 parents and local educators at the Sandpoint High School auditorium, outlining teenage influences that range from the legalization of marijuana to the transparency of the Internet.

And the primary barrier that stands between teens and that culture are parents.

“It’s your job to raise your kids,” Galloway, a commanding figure at 6-foot, 9-inches, said. “Be an active parent. Talk to your kids.”

But that will take some work, self-education, and communication between teenagers and parents, he said.

Teenagers today  face a litany of challenges, many more than today’s parents faced at their age. Kids live in a transparent world of unlimited information access,  social pressures, and near-constant targeted advertising carefully crafted to entice them.

Take marijuana: it’s not that leafy, hippy-grade stuff anymore. New methods of extracting tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active psychotropic ingredient in marijuana, have raised its potency from around 15 percent to as high as 90 percent. Extraction is so easy, a 14- year-old could do it, Galloway said.

The extracted oils, or a substance known by street names such as wax, dab, or honey for its wax-like consistency, can be smoked or cooked into “edibles” — candy, cakes, cookies, anything really — sometimes with tragic results.

Digested edibles take longer to absorb into the body, and the high lasts longer, a potentially bad combination. In one example presented by Galloway, a young teenager consumed an entire batch of edibles meant for several people because he didn’t think his single serving was getting him high. He did eventually get high – too high — and  jumped to his death from a building. In another example, a man killed his wife after consuming an oil-laced edible.

Legalized marijuana laws like those in Washington and Oregon are seeing marijuana extracts creep into the Gem State. Idaho, Galloway pointed out, is the only state whose entire western border abuts two states with legalized recreational marijuana laws.

Another rising problem is electronic vaporizing devices, or e-devices. A new phenomenon primarily used with flavored liquid nicotine, the devices can also be used to smoke raw marijuana, or extracts.

Some devices are sophisticated enough that there is no odor, and they’re in the schools.

“You don’t smell anything,” said SHS principal Tom Albertson, who attended the presentation.

Drug abuse isn’t restricted to the illegal variety in Idaho, however. Potential trouble can lurk on the grocery store shelf or the bathroom cabinet at home, where dextromethorphan, the active ingredient in cough syrup — with street names like DMX and Triple C can be accessed.

“People can have hallucinogens if they drink enough,” Galloway said.

And right next to that bottle of cough syrup might be a brown bottle of prescription drugs. A March survey of 907 Lake Pend Oreille School District teenagers conducted by the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention, the sponsor of Galloway’s presentation, found that 13.4 percent of respondents admitted using prescription drugs not prescribed to them. And 32.3 percent of the students, ranging in ages from 12 to 19, said they knew a friend who abused prescriptions.

Where did they get them? From friends, according to 57.9 percent, while 36.3 said they acquired them from their parents.

Galloway called path from prescriptions to heroin a “natural progression.”

“A lot of our kids are starting with prescription pills,” he said. “They’re going to steal your pills, they’re going to steal grandma’s pills.”

They may take them whole, or crush and snort them. Soon their body builds a resistance to the drug; it stops working for them. They rise to the level of addiction.

“Their next likely step is to go to heroin — there’s no middle buffer in-between that,” Galloway said, “because heroin is so cheap.”

Heroin is easy to find on the street, and its use — and associated deaths — are on the rise across the country.

According to Galloway, parental attitudes are a big motivator — or deterrent — about teens perspective toward alcohol and drug use. It begins at home. Kids see parents drinking and assume it’s OK. Some parents even host teen drinking parties, thinking it’s better to let kids experience alcohol in a controlled environment.

According to the coalition study, over 73 percent of teens said their primary alcohol source was friends. At 46.2 percent, the second leading source was their parents. Where do they drink? Again, primarily with friends, but over one third indicated they drank at home — with parents’ permission.

Nearly 60 percent said they drank alcohol at least once in the past year.

And now a new substance is hitting the market: powdered alcohol — just add water. Banned in Washington state, some states are considering regulated sale. Others have approved it. The Internet will make it available.

“If someone wants to get it they will,” Galloway warned.

Its potential alternative uses remains an open question. Galloway called experimental uses like snorting, “a big fear.” A student may decide to drop some in a teachers coffee cup.

Some parents expressed shock at the underlying culture their kids may be wading through. Ron and Christine Denova, parents of a SHS student, attended the presentation.

“We didn’t know half the stuff,” Christine said.

Ron noted that the language was new to him.

That language is one of the red flags parents can use to help spot potential drug use, or at least influences, in their teens. Music is often laced with drug references. Clothing sold in stores and aimed at teens might sell T-shirts with innocuous drug references, like “just dabbin’” a reference to the waxy marijuana extract. A shirt with a reference to DXM, combined with a stylized purple fluid is a reference to cough syrup abuse.

“As a parent you have to figure out if that is a drug term,” Galloway said.

Purple Kush. Skywalker. Pineapple Diesel. 420 — all marijuana-related slang pulled from the Internet for this story. But don’t assume because your teenage daughter is wearing a shirt with a DXM, or a 420 reference, that she is actually consuming those drugs.  

“All that means is that shirt’s identifying with the drug world,” Galloway warned. “We need to figure out why she’s wearing it.”

So what’s a parent to do?

“Pay attention,” Galloway said.

Find out what’s going on in your home and community. Learn more about current teen culture. Share it with the community. Monitor your teens social media pages — Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and others. What are they talking about? What are their social media friends talking about?

Be aware. Where do your kids shop? Find out what types of clothing the store sells, and what its messaging. Is there something your child is wearing you don’t understand? Google it. Or just have an honest conversation with your teen.

“You’re going to find out they know more than you think they do,” Galloway said.

The Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention is a grant funded partnership with the Sandpoint Police and Bonner County Justice Services, local schools and other local organizations, whose primary focus is underage prescription drug and alcohol abuse.

CCSAP is funded by an annual $100,000, four-year Strategic Prevention Framework Grant from the Idaho Office of Drug Policy.

For more information about the coalition contact coalition executive director Kari Clark at 208-206-5006, via email at kari.clark@lposd.org, or go to their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CCSAPBonnerCounty.