Search for answers begins at home
by Lenny Roberts

Last week, the OVN received an anonymous letter from a parent concerned about teen drug use in the valley. Although we do not normally publish unsigned letters, we believe that this submission can be important reading for children and their parents.

To the editor:
I am fearfully affected by drugs. My friends are, my neighborhood is, and this town is. At first, I saw things in the neighborhood and would sluff it off as "the kids are experimenting, none of my business." When things escalated, I spoke with the parents. After an overdosed kid was raced to the hospital, I started calling the cops. Recently, I called an ambulance on a passed-out kid in my yard, fearing it was another overdose, a possible death. This has been a slow and terrifying evolution.
I now ask the newspaper to publish some of the facts. Fact No. 1 being, yes, there are drugs in Ojai, and people are dying because of their use. I know it's not a pretty subject, but I can't stand thinking that I would avoid it after all that is going on around here. What are the types of drugs being used? How many arrests in Ojai have been made around them? What do these drugs do to the body? How would we know if our kids are on them? How addictive are they? Are there treatments? What happens after treatment?
The most important question is how can we as a community prevent another death due to drug use?
- Anonymous

The staff of the OVN has devoted many hours conducting interviews of teens and adults, compiling facts and statistics, and preparing this detailed report on drug use in the valley. Perhaps the recent deaths of young people are a lesson from which we all can learn. Perhaps if just one young person or parent is reached by this report, the renewed efforts of many to find a solution will not have been in vain.
Ojai is not immune to drug use. In fact, it is the most drug-active area in Ventura County in which the Sheriff's Department enforces the law.
The ASTER Foundation and Gladstone Counseling Center have formed the Ojai Valley Substance Abuse Education Project in search of more effective drug abuse prevention and treatment programs. Dr. Bruce Gladstone states, "Drug abuse among our youth, along with its associated trauma, suffering and grief, has become all too common in our community. It is time for us to come out of denial and come to grips with this reality and do something about it."
According to Gladstone, the California Healthy Kids Survey conducted by the Ojai Valley Unified School District and the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation in 2000 and 2002 yielded disturbing responses.
The survey asked 1,309 students in grades seven, nine and 11 to report their use of alcohol and drugs. Thirteen percent of seventh graders, 36 percent of ninth graders, and 57 percent of 11th graders reported getting high from using unspecified drugs. Further, 3 percent of seventh graders, 18 percent of ninth graders, and 37 percent of 11th graders said they had been drunk or high on marijuana while on school property.
"These statistics, along with our personal experiences of what kids are telling us and what we ourselves know and feel, can and should be a powerful motivation for us to take positive action to prevent further escalation of drug abuse and to encourage treatment for kids and families in a community already deeply involved in drug abuse," Gladstone said.

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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