DRUG USE STILL HIGH AMONG SOME AREA TEENS; OVERDOSES HOSPITALIZE 69 MINORS THIS YEAR.

Byline: Orith Goldberg Staff Writer

In the past year, 73 minors have been hospitalized in Santa Clarita for drug overdoses.

Sixty-nine of those cases involved illegal drugs, while four patients overdosed on prescription medications.

Shelley Hernandez, a drug and alcohol counselor at Anacapa By the Sea, a rehabilitation clinic in Port Hueneme, said the facility treats many Santa Clarita Valley teens addicted to marijuana and methamphetamine.

Despite anti-drug messages blaring from TV, radio and billboards, teens continue to use drugs.

Locally, the drugs of choice are marijuana and alcohol, authorities say, while use of methamphetamines, mushrooms and LSD continues.

Los Angeles County firefighter Bruce Alpern said some teens overdose on anything they can find, from depressants to over-the-counter painkillers.

``I have run into quite a few that have overdosed on Tylenol,'' Alpern said. ``When kids do this, they are doing it for attention. They are hurt and need some help. They think it won't hurt them in the long run, but if they take enough, it could kill them.''

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Detective Ricky Velazquez said teens now have access to a more potent strain of marijuana that is being grown domestically. In commercial-grade marijuana, a person might get a high from one joint. With the more potent drug, it takes one-third the amount, Velazquez said.

``In Santa Clarita, juveniles are mostly doing this high-grade pot,'' Velazquez said. ``A small percentage are also doing methamphetamine, and there is occasional use of mushrooms and LSD.''

Investigators have discovered a few houses in the Santa Clarita Valley where marijuana plants have been grown. There are many more plants grown in the Angeles National Forest, Velazquez said.

``We probably confiscated 15,000 plants a year from the forest,'' he said. ``Nobody knows it's growing up there, but it is.''

Use of marijuana, Velazquez said, triggers interest in stronger drugs.

``I've run into people, 17 and 18 years old, who have moved on from pot and are doing speed now,'' he said.

Teens tend to use methamphetamines because they like the type of high, which could create psychosis and will usually keep users up for days at a time, drug-counselor Hernandez said.

When methamphetamine users start to come down from the high, they become very depressed and take more, she said.

Hernandez said teens coming in for treatment are generally 15 to 18.

At local schools, marijuana is the most common drug found on students, said Michael Allmandinger, administrator of student services for the William S. Hart Union High School District.

``Marijuana is the biggest, and alcohol is second,'' Allmandinger said. ``We haven't found cocaine at school.''

During the 1998-99 school year, there were 140 suspensions for possession, use, furnishing or being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. That number has decreased from the two previous years.

The previous year, 171 students were suspended and in 1996-97, 179.

Forty-seven percent of seventh graders, 68 percent of ninth graders and 83 percent of 11th graders said they had tried alcohol, according to the California Healthy Kids Survey of teens' thoughts about about smoking, alcohol and marijuana.

Marijuana usage was lower, with 7 percent of seventh graders, 23 percent of ninth graders and 44 percent of 11th graders stating they had used the drug.

Velazquez said generally, students are afraid to bring drugs to school because they know they are subject to search.

Most parents who are aware their children are using drugs are concerned and want to help. But other parents remain in denial, Velazquez said.

Velazquez advised parents who know their children are using drugs not to be afraid to search their children's room.

``If they know what their kid is up to and know their kids' friends, that is another thing that will help in the long run,'' Velazquez said.