A very uncomfortable topic




An important community forum scheduled for tonight at Thousand Oaks High School will discuss a disturbing trend in the Conejo Valley: the rise of prescription drug and heroin use among young people.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. inside the school’s performing arts center. If you have a child under the age of 18 or are involved in any way in the lives of adolescents, you are strongly encouraged to attend.

It shouldn’t shock anyone to learn that many kids in the Conejo and Las Virgenes valleys are active drug users; some are even heroin addicts. Since 2009, authorities in this area have reported four heroinrelated deaths, 26 overdoses and 245 arrests associated with the drug.

All communities struggle with the problem of youth drug use. Here in California—where the hard-partying Hollywood lifestyle is often glamorized—there are temptations galore and easy access to a a variety of drugs.

But what makes this latest trend most disturbing—besides the potential for loss of life—is the role that we parents might be playing. Recently, deputies arrested three local doctors who were prescribing hundreds of pills a month to some of their adult patients, who then resold the pills to kids.

Many young people who become addicted to painkillers, such as Oxycontin, eventually transition to heroin because it’s cheaper.

Talk to any officer and he or she will tell you that people don’t just wake up one day and start shooting heroin. Addiction is more like a progression with a beginning, a middle and an end. Too often, that first step is being taken not on the mean streets, but inside the homes of middle- and upper-class families.

The link between heroin use and the use of prescription painkillers such as Vicodin, Norco and Oxyontin cannot be overstated. On a molecular level, the substances are identical. Simply stated, the narcotic ingredients are the lure that gets a person hooked.

By the time a teen or young adult is using heroin intravenously, the parent has already missed countless opportunities to step in and break the chain. And that’s what tonight’s forum is all about: raising the awareness of early signs of danger and telling parents who are already struggling with an addicted child that they are not alone.

The forum is from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Thousand Oaks High School performing arts center, 2323 N. Moorpark Road. To learn more about the new coalition that was formed to deal with hardcore drugs, visit www.safeconejo.org or call (805) 494-8256.

Sylvie Belmond’s story on the topic begins on page 1.



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