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47 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, January 24, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 10, 2004 Brice, 18, is undergoing treatment for a methamphetamine addiction that began before he entered middle school. Increasing use of meth among adolescents has been a startling development in Oregon. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Young faces of addiction Meth scourge takes its toll on kids, with adolescent use on the rise By JONEL ALECCIA Mail Tribune News that Oregon teens are using methamphetamine in record numbers has come about six years too late for one young man in Medford. Brice turned 18 in September, but the baby-faced youth with the shadow of a dark beard is already a veteran of meth addiction. "I was 12 when I tried it the first time," said Brice, who asked to protect his identity by using only his middle name. Now he’s on his third attempt at treatment for a habit that started in elementary school, escalated through middle school and destroyed his high school years. "I never got to go to my prom or nothing. I kind of liked baseball, but I missed a lot of stuff," said Brice, an OnTrack Inc. client who was arrested last year with an "eight- ball" — 3.25 grams — of meth in his pocket. Advertisement At a cost of about $150, the drugs might have lasted Brice a day or two. "I’ve robbed people’s cars. I stole from my family. You just don’t have nothing left." Brice’s story is anecdotally and statistically familiar to drug treatment providers in Jackson County and across Oregon. Last year, more than 1,700 children ages 17 and younger were treated for meth use in Oregon, according to figures from the state Office of Mental Health and Addiction services. The number of treatment admissions for girls has jumped 57 percent since 1999 and it’s grown steadily for boys as well, statistics show. In Jackson County, nearly 14 percent of more than 750 alcohol and drug citations issued to minors last year involved methamphetamine. Figures show 104 juveniles were cited last year for being minors in possession of a controlled substance — and nearly all of those involved meth, said Carl Erickson, deputy director of Jackson County Juvenile Services. Nine children cited for possession of meth in 2003 were under age 12. Another 42 were ages 12 to 15; 53 were older than 16. Equally alarming is the growing prevalence of meth use among detained teens, Erickson said. Three to five years ago, a small percentage of youth in custody might have tried meth. Now most of the 600 to 800 youths lodged at the county juvenile center each year are familiar with the powerful stimulant. "I’d say 75 to 80 percent of the kids who are lodged have tried it or are using it," Erickson said. Meth addiction accounts for a growing percentage of the more than 5,100 crimes committed by juveniles in Jackson County each year, he added. In a state that treats more people for meth addiction per capita than any other, increasing use among adolescents has been a startling development. The stigma that once defined meth as too extreme for young users has shifted. Girls, in particular, have gravitated toward the synthetic drug whose side effects include weight loss and euphoric energy, said Clay Cooke, a treatment supervisor at OnTrack Inc. "I’m seeing more kids and more girls involved with meth at a younger age," said Cooke, who has been working with addicts for 17 years. Many of the young people he treats are children of addicts who found the drug available at home. "If you’re growing up in a family where everybody eats cornflakes in the morning, you’re going to eat cornflakes as well," Cooke said. As a kid, Brice knew about the drug’s ominous reputation, but he also knew his mom used meth — although never in front of him — and that his 17- and 18-year-old friends used it, too. Barely out of elementary school, Brice expanded a pot habit that began at age 11 to include meth. By age 12, he was snorting meth once a month. "Once I did the meth, it wasn’t that big of a deal," recalls Brice, who didn’t immediately understand the drug’s harmfulness. He liked the energy and creativity it provided. "I’d stay up all night drawing sometimes," he said. "You wouldn’t even realize it and hours would go by." The qualities that make meth attractive to adults also draw teens, noted Rita Sullivan, executive director of OnTrack Inc. "You have this huge sense of well-being that you want to duplicate," she said. Meth stimulates the body’s production of the pleasure-producing neurotransmitter dopamine, but it also exhausts it, creating a binge-and-crash cycle, Sullivan said. Because the fall is so hard, most users try to keep the high going, often resorting to theft to pay for more meth. Brice said he sold everything he owned before beginning to steal from family members to support his habit. Growing bodies and brains are particularly susceptible to the ravages of the extremely addictive drug, Sullivan said. Research shows that a large percentage of first-time users use again — and that most of those second-time users develop a regular habit, she said. "This is a drug that does not allow experimentation," Sullivan said. Eventually, users lose the ability to find pleasure in normal activities. It can take two years for the body to replenish itself — and even then, some physical damage is permanent, she said. The social damage can be equally devastating, said Brice, who vowed his third try at treatment will be his last. Meth addiction cost him relationships, work and self-respect, Brice said. Overcoming meth addiction has gradually brought those elements back. "My life’s gone nothing but up since then," he said. Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers