An 11-member panel of education, health and law enforcement professionals gathered at Lincoln Academy on Veterans’ Day to discuss the issue of youth substance abuse.
The subject material during the conversation ranged from the persistent problems of alcohol and prescription drug abuse to fears about the spread of bath salts.
“Drug abuse is typically cyclical,” Detective Lance Mitchell of the Waldoboro Police Department said. The substance in question, in rural Maine, largely depends on availability.
Mitchell came to Waldoboro more than a decade ago, when “heroin was the drug of choice,” he said. Later, cocaine took its place.
At present, “The primary drug that’s being abused is prescription medication,” Mitchell said. “You name it – if it’s a prescription medication, it’s being abused.”
Prescription drug abuse and addiction often leads to other criminal activity. “We see a lot of theft, a lot of property crimes” committed by people “trying to gain access to prescription drugs,” Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett said.
The problem goes beyond raiding retirees’ medicine cabinets. Earl “Buddy” Bieler and Corina Durkee were planning to steal prescription drugs from two women when, instead, they murdered one and badly wounded the other in April 2009.
Law enforcement officers encouraged people to properly dispose of prescription drugs and to safeguard information about prescription drugs in their homes. The Damariscotta Police Department and the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office accept prescription drugs during business hours.
Damariscotta Police Chief Chad Andrews sometimes deals with parents who give their prescription drugs to their children, often because the children request the drugs for pain. Regardless of benevolent intentions, that’s a felony, he said.
Lincoln County law enforcement officials have less experience with bath salts, although the drug – practically unknown a year ago – is common in Rockland.
Rockland/Waldoboro Emergency Medical Technician Katy Vanorse has firsthand experience with the volatility of a subject under the influence of the drug, which can cause extreme paranoia, among a long list of unpleasant effects.
“I was actually attacked in the back of an ambulance by a bath salts patient,” Vanorse said. Another patient, a 19-year-old man, caused $50,000 in damage to a special care unit at Penobscot Bay Medical Center.
Rockland’s approximately 150 bath salts-related incidents place the city on par with Bangor for the most per capita in the state, Vanorse said. The effects of the unpredictable substance can last two days or up to a week and a half and, most disturbingly, the users have been as young as 14, she said.
Lincoln County is preparing for an uptick in bath salts use. Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy and Lincoln Academy School Resource Officer Mark Bridgham is leading training sessions for emergency workers across the county.
Bridgham believes the majority of bath salts users are “already abusers.”
“They’re just looking for a new kick, a new high, and this stuff has landed and it gives a kick,” Bridgham said.
Following four sessions exclusively for emergency workers, Bridgham plans to extend educational efforts to the public.
Andrews said he’s working with Miles Memorial Hospital to coordinate security in the event of a bath salts incident.
Bath salts grab headlines, but alcohol and marijuana are still the “gateway substances” for youth, Barbara Barnett, a psychotherapist specializing in substance abuse treatment, said.
Andrews cautioned parents to secure their liquor supply – nine times out of 10, kids steal alcohol from their parents, he said.
The panel also focused on prevention and treatment methods. Bridgham stressed the importance of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program in elementary schools.
Lincoln Academy’s health center also serves as an important resource. Students in need of counseling or other professional assistance sometimes approach Bridgham, who can “quietly, confidentially” refer them to a “very competent” person at the health center, he said.
The role of parents, though, repeatedly came to the forefront. “Mom and dad don’t need to be friends, they need to be parents,” Bridgham said. “Mom and dad, you’re in charge.”
Mitchell said he’s seen parenting change dramatically in his career as a law enforcement officer. Modern parents are almost afraid to parent, he said.
“Go search your child’s room. Search your child’s backpack,” Mitchell said. “Be a parent. Be involved in your child’s life.”
Barnett encouraged parents to educate themselves, while Brackett said they should take advantage of the resource they have in other parents.
Tim Fox, an emergency room physician at Lincoln County Healthcare, said children are “never too young to talk to about substance abuse.”
During a brief question and answer session, a mother of a Lincoln Academy student asked about the school’s lockdown procedure.
Bridgham explained that the school has an agreement in place with the Southern Maine K-9 Task Force. The Task Force provides Bridgham with just a 15-minute warning before arriving on campus.
Upon the arrival of the Task Force, the school enters lockdown mode, locking all classroom doors.
The constitutional rights of students limit the scope of the search. The dogs sniff cars, but officers and school officials can’t search a vehicle without the student’s permission or, if a parent or another individual owns the vehicle, the permission of either the student or the owner.
The students usually submit to vehicle searches. If they don’t, the police can impound the car and try to get a warrant, but that’s never happened at Lincoln Academy, Bridgham said.
Lockers, meanwhile, are school property, and the school can search lockers at will.
The lockdowns have turned up alcohol, cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, marijuana, rolling papers and prescription drugs, Lincoln Academy Associate Head of School Andrew Mullin said.
“The majority of our students do not want these things in our schools,” Mullin said.
Mullin invited area residents to attend the next in a series of “community first” forums aimed at “promoting a cleaner, healthier, safer community.” The next forum is scheduled for Wed., Jan. 11 from 5:30-7 p.m. at Great Salt Bay Community School.
The youth substance abuse forum will air Thurs., Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. on Boothbay Harbor Community Television and Lincoln County Television as part of the “Wuzzup” program.
“Wuzzup” co-host Bobby Whear, the moderator of the panel, encourages parents and children to watch the program together.
