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CNN Saturday Morning News

Teens and Drugs in the 21st Century

Aired August 04, 2001 - 08:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
REA BLAKEY, CNN ANCHOR: Teen drug use is serious enough, but when you hear that some teens are smoking a chemical used to preserve the dead to get high? Well, that's reached another level.

We have two guests this morning to help us understand what teens are dealing with today and what's available to help them. First, Dr. Alan Leshner is from the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Washington. And also joining us from New York, Jeanette Friedman, who's director of the teen program at Phoenix House.

Ms. Friedman, let's start with you. Give us a feel for exactly what your program does.

JEANETTE FRIEDMAN, PHOENIX HOUSE: Well, as you may know, Phoenix House is the oldest and largest drug treatment facility in the country and we're in eight different states. We really work with all levels of, we work with adolescents and with adults and their families on various levels of drug use.

My particular program works with adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 and we try to help them regain their lives because they have reached some level of dysfunction due to their drug use, which may be alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy and other drugs.

BLAKEY: OK, and let's focus a little bit on the so-called club drugs. What exactly are those?

FRIEDMAN: Well, first of all, if you want to look at ecstasy as one of the classic club drugs, what they're talking about these days, it's important to remember that it's not -- they are not used only in clubs. They are also used on the street, they are used in people's homes. So it's a bit of a misnomer to only refer to them as a club drug. You can have children who are not going to clubs at all who are definitely involved with ecstasy.

BLAKEY: All right, and Dr. Leshner, let's get you in here. There are those that think that ecstasy really isn't that huge of a drug abuse issue. What are the long-term effects? What do we know about it?

DR. ALAN LESHNER, NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE: Well, one of the things that we've learned, of course, is that there are long lasting effects of ecstasy on the brain that last long after you stop. And that explains why a number of people have long lasting mood changes or have changes in memory that sort of take the edge off their academic performance, for example.

BLAKEY: And we're told that a number of these youngsters, teens, people in their early 20s are using club drugs in particular to help them, you know, sort of keep partying all night long. Would there be any therapeutic benefit of something like an ecstasy?

LESHNER: You know, there's never been a clinical trial showing the usefulness of ecstasy for any therapeutic purpose. Now, there's a lot of mythology out there because people claim that it can give you great insight. But that's never been demonstrated in any kind of scientific study.

BLAKEY: And Ms. Friedman, when we talk about the fact that these drugs are not just used in clubs, oftentimes in homes and obviously kids are dealing among themselves even though they obviously don't think of it as dealing. They sort of, you know, think they're doing a favor for a friend, if you will.

FRIEDMAN: You bet.

BLAKEY: How can parents really pinpoint what's slightly bizarre and possibly drug related behavior versus, you know, the average teenager kind of acting out?

FRIEDMAN: Well, I think it's very important for parents to understand that no one goes to ecstasy as the first drug that they are trying. There has, there would have been quite a bit of experimentation with other drugs, such as alcohol and marijuana, first.

So in terms of behavior that needs to be followed, really what's more important than showing up in the evening, for example, with red eyes or slowed speech or perhaps imbalance in your gait would be a general, the general sense of behavior with your children. In other words, you need to know your kids. You need to really be aware of who they're with and what they're doing when they're not with you and get a general idea of -- really know your children so that you are able to spot when there's an abnormality, when something seems not quite right.

It's very important for parents to trust their instincts about this. Parents are usually right when they sense that there's something wrong and they need to go after that.

BLAKEY: And Dr. Leshner, this business about using embalming fluid, cigarettes dipped in embalming fluid, is that a new trend? Is that something that actually started back in the '70s and just sort of reared its ugly head again? And what is supposed to be the benefit of that?

LESHNER: Well, you know, kids will do amazing things in an attempt to get high. Embalming fluid, I assume that they take it because it's got all those solvents in it, formaldehyde and other kinds of solvents. And what it does is it actually shuts down your brain. It's like a depressant drug, but it gives people, I guess, some kind of a sense of euphoria. But the truth is, as you can imagine, that's a tremendously dangerous thing to put an embalming fluid, to put a solvent directly into your brain.

BLAKEY: Now, they could actually die from embalming fluid, right?

LESHNER: Absolutely. Solvents are very dangerous substances. It causes what we call respiratory depression. You know, it shuts down your breathing, it shuts down your brain function. Obviously this is a very dangerous kind of experiment that you could go on with your own body.

BLAKEY: And now there are other club drugs GHB. There are all these names out there and I think as parents sometimes we're sort of mystified. You know, kids have their own special language, their special codes. Give us a feel for what some of these special street names are and what they actually mean. What drugs are they? Dr. Leshner?

LESHNER: Well, they're drugs, ecstasy has all kinds of names on the street. There are other drugs, GHB, Special K is ketamine. That's actually a veterinary anesthetic. It's normally used to do surgery on animals. And these are all kinds of substances kids are experimenting with these days.

FRIEDMAN: Rea, if I could interject just a moment?

BLAKEY: Yes, sure.

FRIEDMAN: With these, the teenagers that I work with tell me that MDMA, which is the actual chemical component that makes up pure ecstasy, is oftentimes not what kids are buying when they think that's what they're buying. They're buying a mixture of MDMA that is cut with sometimes heroin, sometimes cocaine, sometimes a form of speed. So it's very important to understand that there are different levels of purity with ecstasy and with each level of purity you're going to have a different set of behaviors that are going to occur.

We can't forget that we're really altering brain chemistry when we're taking any kind of a substance of abuse and that that will have an effect on one's behavior and one's perception, one's experience of life.

BLAKEY: Right. And Ms. Friedman, there's a Web site available for parents and anybody who wants to get more information?

FRIEDMAN: Yes. It's phoenixhouse.org is our Web site and we welcome people to come on as often as they can.

BLAKEY: All right, great.

Dr. Alan Leshner from the National Institute of Drug Abuse in Washington and also Jeanette Friedman, director of Phoenix House in New York. Thank you both for joining us this morning.

FRIEDMAN: Thank you.

BLAKEY: Very important information. LESHNER: Thank you.

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