<bt>Parents, if you hear your pre-teens and teenagers talking about the Love Boat or a Clambake, you might want to check for drugs.
A Love Boat is PCP and marijuana combined and smoked. A Clam Bake is a car load of people smoking pot and closing the windows.
Any talk of a steam roller could be a reference to a paper towel roll filled with dryer sheets to mask the smell of marijuana.
Allyne Zappalla, one of four substance abuse prevention specialists in the Loudoun County school system, said parents should know the signs of drug abuse.
Erin Young, another specialist, said gangs sell drugs. Tackling substance abuse helps solve both problems, she said.
Young and other youth specialists recommended parents check for these signs:
· A change in friends.
· Grades dropping.
· Hostility in discussing drugs.
· Lack of motivation.
· Memory lapses and short attention span.
· Indifference to hygiene and grooming.
· Chronic dishonesty.
· Possession of large amounts of money.
· Increasingly inappropriate anger, hospitality, secretiveness.
· Diminished interest in extracurricular activities.
· Style of clothes they wear.
· Overpowering scents to cover up drug smell.
Young suggested parents check the Internet sites their children have been visiting and inspect their rooms for drugs, drug-related magazines and paraphernalia.
"One thing alone does not mean your child is using," she added.
Zappalla said she knows of several overdoses involving Loudoun teens. Many are abusing dextromethorthan or DXM, which is found in Coricidin, she said. They are taking it in larger quantities to get a feeling of detachment from the environment and themselves," she said. "They feel sedated or drunk. They experience numbness in their extremities, dizziness, poor coordination, an inability to move arms and legs or talk. Sometimes breathing slows down. Death has occurred, but not in Loudoun."
Teens find easy access to the drug, buying it over the counter or shoplifting, she said.
Young said students are carving out cigars and stuffing them with marijuana. They are using inhalants. "This is something that teachers and principals have been noticing," she said. "They will spray their clothes or hands. And they will be sniffing in class."
Another symptom is redness around the mouth, particularly above the lips and below the lips, she said.
Dave Carver, coordinator of the Gang Response and Intervention Team (G.R.I.T.), said he met one student who was sucking freon from air conditioners in the neighborhood.
New data regarding Loudoun's youth drug use and other risk behaviors is expected to be available soon. A survey of 2,300 8th, 10th and 12th graders has been completed. In 2001, the student said 20 percent of Loudoun's students used marijuana in the last 30 days, with 36 percent of the students having used alcohol. It said 14 percent of the students tried using marijuana before they turned 13, with 13 percent having tried alcohol at age 10 or younger.