Retired LAPD officer tells CHS parents about drugs





By Lori Porter
Acorn Staff Writer

Retired LAPD officer Trinka Parrata is now a consultant who visits schools, hospitals and police departments throughout the U.S. He came to Calabasas High School recently to educate parents on the types of drugs that kids are using today and on the potential dangers generated by using drugs.


"It all starts at home," Parrata said. "If mom and dad need Valium or Prozac or a beer to feel better, how are they going to tell Johnny not to do drugs?"


Parrata said the U.S. is a drug-seeking nation, always looking for a quick fix. Some drugs, she said, are virtually unknown. For instance, a popular beverage that comes in small cans, available in grocery stores, contains a stimulant stronger than caffeine that the FDA knows nothing about, according to Parrata.


Then there’s a herbal supplement, advertised to restore memory and brain function. Which it does, said Parrata. But the increased blood flow, she said, can cause hemorrhage during surgery; a person can literally bleed to death. She said the danger with the supplement is that people don’t consider it a drug, so when they go in for surgery and the doctor asks, "Are you taking any medications? The patient answers "no."


Legal drugs are causing an epidemic. They include over-the-counter cough and cold medications, which contain dextrometh-orphan. There’s a tragically growing number of kids, some as young as 11, Parrata said, who go into stores and buy these cold remedies. The idea is to take about 20 at a time, which creates a high similar to that of PCP. Too many young children, Parrata said, end up dead or in comas from overdosing on these otherwise safe medications.


More alarming though is the drug called Ecstasy. "E" is known as the "rave" drug. A rave is an all night dance party for teens, usually in a warehouse setting, with strobe lights and loud techno music, a style that has 200 plus beats per minute. The drug Ecstasy is as easy to get at a rave as a hot dog at a ball game.


Ecstasy causes the user to feel extremely energized. A person can dance for up to five hours on Ecstasy. Every touch, smell and sight is highly pleasurable on this drug, which incidentally is considered a "rape" drug just for that reason.


Parrata said that when kids are on "E" they’re often called "etards," a play on the word retard, because they’re so impaired they often don’t detect dangers, such as rape or even a serious health problem being experienced by a friend.


For instance, Parrata said she’d heard of a case where a kid at a rave, high on "E," danced next to his friend’s dead body for hours—not concerned or even aware that his friend had passed out and died.


If a person does survive and continues to take Ecstasy, they begin to experience depression that cannot be treated because the serotonin in the brain has been depleted, leaving the user with an inability to feel good when sober.


Another drug being used today is Ketamine, a cat tranquilizer. Though it creates a high for the user, it can also put them into cardiac arrest, leaving them with extreme brain damage or even dead.


Many athletes and body builders are abusing the drug GHB, ordinarily known as the "date rape" drug. When a person detoxes from this drug, they’re often so depressed that they have an overwhelming desire to commit suicide.


Parrata’s lecture included videos of raves and two men high on GHB with serious muscle spasms and disorientation that would make a drunk look like a ballet dancer.


When the video ended with a young beautiful girl who’s now severely handicapped from doing Ketamine just once, the entire auditorium at CHS was silent. The impact of Parrata’s lecture was obviously powerful.


One woman asked her, "Why don’t the middle schools and high schools have someone like you there teaching this?" Parrata answered her by saying that things are changing.


The DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program is becoming more drug savvy and changing its method of teaching, she said.


In the meantime, "Go home and hug your kids and be there for them. Listen to them," Parrata said.


"This is the best defense against drug abuse."



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