AUSTRALIA: WHEN KIDS LIGHT UP

New research suggests Australian children are experimenting with
drugs at alarmingly early ages. The result, according to doctors, can
be a lifetime of problems. By Carol Nader.

IT WAS when her daughter turned 15 that Barbara noticed the dramatic
change. The teenager was frequently distressed. Her eyes were red and
swollen from constant crying. She became withdrawn, sullen,
depressed. She could not sleep, and spent more and more time out,
only returning home for meals.

Then came other, more disturbing signs. She would pass out on the
couch and could not be roused. Then started the anxiety and paranoia,
followed by the early signs of psychosis.

But when Barbara detected the whiff of tobacco on her daughter it
dawned on her that her daughter was experiencing far more than mere
adolescent angst -- she had a serious cannabis problem.

"It was like a sudden realisation -- the red eyes, the smell of
tobacco. She didn't smoke cigarettes," says Barbara, who did not want
her real name to be used. She'd skip school or be stoned when she
arrived. She also sought solace in alcohol.

"She was certainly the sort of person that, if she was drinking, she
couldn't have one drink. She would drink until she was a write-off,
until she was staggering and throwing up."

While her daughter's drug problem did not come to a head until she
was 15, Barbara believes she first dabbled in drugs when she was as
young as 13.

In an area where "cannabis was just about growing wild", it was easy
to get. "I know my daughter's first introduction to marijuana was
when one of her friends' parents gave some to her friend and they had
their first joint together," she says.

"Parents were giving it to children, I think, to justify their own
use. Parents were using it in the house and they'd give some to their
children, 13-year-olds or even younger, in order to stop them
stealing it or stealing money."

While 13 may seem a disturbingly early age to be initiated into drug
use, some children are starting even younger. Statistics released
this week by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare suggest
that some children are first experimenting with drugs when they're 11 or 12.

One in 14 Australian children aged 12 to 15 or about 80,000 children
have used an illicit drug. The prevalence of drug use among older
teenagers has long been known -- 20.9 per cent of 16 and 17-year-olds
and 30.9 per cent of 18 and 19-year-olds have used illicit drugs,
according to the report.

But it's the figures relating to teenagers under 15 that have sparked
surprise and disquiet. The average age of initiation for pain-killers
for recreational use was 11 years and five months. Some had tried
steroids, cocaine and heroin before their 13th birthday, according to
the analysis of the 2004 he says.

"Where you're identifying depression, anxiety and emerging psychosis
in young people, and if you could do that more effectively, you could
reduce a lot of the problems that we see."

McGorry says that for many people drugs start out as fun, but the
situation can degenerate once it becomes necessary as a relief from
their problems. "A lot of kids just try things but they get dependent
if they've got an underlying mental health problem," he says.

In some cases, children might even be following the lead of their
parents when it comes to drug taking. Like the friend who initiated
Barbara's daughter, some teenagers get their drugs from an unlikely
source -- their parents.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report says that 12.9
per cent of children 12 and over were given their first cigarette by
a relative, 40.2 per cent were given their first alcoholic drink by a
relative and 10.5 per cent were first given cannabis by a relative.

When it comes to heroin, 17.7 per cent got their first hit from a
relative. A parents' decision to give children cannabis comes from
the same school of thought that giving a child alcohol will lessen
their likelihood of binge drinking later in life.

But research has dispelled that belief. A recent study of 6000
students in Victoria and Washington found that, rather than stopping
alcohol abuse, giving children in their early high school years
alcohol while under supervision made them more likely to binge drink
in later years.

Victorian students who drank at the beginning of high school were
three times more likely to binge drink by the time they reached years
9 and 10. Jesuit Social Services policy director Father Peter Norden
says that this might explain why the the age of drug use among
teenagers may be declining.

"It's not seen as a taboo thing as it might have been 10 or 20 years
ago, particularly marijuana use, because you've got a significant
number of parents of young people who are still regular smokers," he says.

"A significant proportion of the population have used marijuana and
there's a significant proportion of parents who would continue to use
marijuana on a regular basis."

But among parents who do not condone recreational drug use, the
reaction on learning of their child's drug-taking is devastating.
Typical responses include denial, shame and social withdrawal.

Alan Nurnane, the manager of the Family Drug Help support group, says
that many want to keep the problem hidden -- like a scandalous family
secret. "They tend to isolate themselves. They don't want to talk
about it or acknowledge it, Barbara counts herself lucky; her
daughter recognised she had a problem and stopped before it
intensified. Many years later she has had a complete recovery. After
a year of heavy cannabis use, Barbara's daughter started to notice
her paranoia had become extreme and she "started to think she was going mad".

She was so frightened by the emergence of psychotic episodes that she
simply stopped taking drugs. "She was having strong deja vu
experiences with paranoia, where she'd feel that if she didn't change
something, something terrible would happen," Barbara says.

"It wasn't an easy road for her and she did exceptionally well to
recover without having national drug strategy household survey. But
are younger teenagers taking drugs for fun, because their friends are
doing it or because they have deeper underlying problems?

Child psychiatrist Dr Paul Denborough, from the Alfred Hospital's
child and adolescent mental health service, says there are certainly
children as young as 11 or 12 who have tried cannabis.

Equally, more children are experiencing behavioural problems at a
younger age. "In terms of more extreme behaviours or out-of-control
behaviours in kids, that is potentially presenting at a younger
age,"he says. "The problems, I believe, are becoming more complex or
more challenging at a younger age. Generally, you'd think of
teenagers as being potentially out of control, but it does seem to be
a trend that those sort of out-of-control behaviours are happening at
a younger age, which could include drug use."

Denborough says that of all the children over 12 he sees, up to 40
per cent have used drugs. In children younger than 12, it has been
known to happen but is more rare.

"It's often a combination of kids feeling alienated or lonely or
sad,"he says. "Often the kids who are sad at that age have reason to
be sad. They're either struggling with friendships or families, there
could be social disadvantage as well, but I think it's best viewed as
a psychosocial problem rather than a medical problem."

Denborough says that often the symptoms of drug problems are treated,
but it's the issues causing the sadness or behavioural problems that
need to be resolved. And it's the lack of investment in early
childhood that is creating longer-term problems.

"I think that generally mental health services for children and
adolescents are under-resourced, so in that way society is letting
these kids down," he says. "I think adolescence is potentially harder
because there's a lot more awareness of information through the
internet and there's also more exposure to adult lifestyle at a
younger age than before."

However, on the other side of the coin, kids are often staying
dependent on their families longer than they were before." The report
for the first time identified clear links between mental illness and
drug taking.

While 9 per cent of the overall population had been diagnosed or
treated for a mental illness in the preceding year, the rate is
alarmingly higher in drug-taking populations. Among those who took
cannabis in the month before they were interviewed, 16.5 per cent had
a mental illness.

Half the heroin-using population had a mental illness, while 16 per
cent of ecstasy users and 13 per cent of cocaine users had a mental
illness. help from services or counselling."

But many other teenagers go on to develop serious mental health
problems. At Orygen Youth Health, 70 per cent of teenagers who seek
treatment for mental health conditions have drug issues, according to
executive director Professor Patrick McGorry.

While there has been much debate about which comes first -- the
mental health problem or the drug use -- McGorry believes that in at
least half those patients the mental health problem is the first to
emerge. "Fifty per cent of drug and alcohol problems in young people
could be prevented by effective recognition and treatment of people
in early to mid adolescence, even within their own family,"says
Nurnane, who runs the service from 22 sites across the state.

"There's a real fear about how they'll be judged and how people will
judge their family member." Nurnane cites the case of Brighton
private school St Leonard's, which has gone into damage control this
week after revelations that three students smoked marijuana on a
recent school trip to Fiji.

"The evidence is clearly showing that peer pressure is very important
in people experimenting with drugs, and then within that you get the
kids who are struggling and those who are out to take risks and like
to try everything."

The Premier's Drug Prevention Council is developing a position paper
on how to deal with cannabis, with a focus on young people. Health
Minister Bronwyn Pike has also asked the council to consider whether
the Government can prohibit the sale of bongs and other water pipes
to minors. So what's a parent to do?

WHAT can parents do when they discover their children have started
experimenting with drugs? Family Drug Help manager Alan Nurnane says
parents should keep communication open with their children and find
ways to connect with them.

"It's about knowing their friends and talking to their friends and
talking to their friends' parents," he says. He believes parents need
to create an environment in which their children can talk. But it's
also important not to focus on their drug use.

"We start seeing the person as a drug user rather than a family
member in their own right who is experimenting with drugs,"he says.
"So all the time we're looking to see if they're lying or using,
we're worrying about who they're seeing or ringing up.

"The result of that scrutiny is that children start to cover up. We
actually create situations where they need to start lying sometimes.
But if we took the focus off and tried to stay connected to their
whole life, not just their drug use, then there's more chance that
they will feel that they can talk to us about it."

He says that it is also important for parents to be very clear about
where they stand on drug use because ambivalence about drugs can be
construed as endorsement. Parents should also not blame themselves.

"Kids live in a society, and families are an important part of that,
but only one part. The school, the community and media are all
important parts of what creates our kid and we don't have control
over all those things, so don't feel too guilty if things don't go as we hope."

Barbara's daughter (see main story) repeatedly refused appeals to get
help, but Barbara sought support from parents who were sharing the
same experience. She saw counsellors and joined a support group.

"It's really, really important for parents to get support,"she says.
"It's really hard to deal with this by yourself."

For help contact Family Drug Helpline 1300 660 068.

Drugs In Australia: A Snapshot

* 7.2 per cent of those aged 12 to 15 have used an illicit drug.

* 64.8 per cent of those aged 12 to 15 have never had a full glass of alcohol.

* 61.9 per cent of Australians have never used an illicit drug.

* 12.9 per cent of Australians have been verbally or physically
abused or put in fear by someone affected by illicit drugs.

* 92 per cent of Australians support stricter enforcement laws
against supplying tobacco to minors.

* 85.9 per cent support more severe penalties for drink driving.

■ 27 per cent support the legalisation of marijuana.

* 8.9 per cent of Australians drink daily.

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare