SUBURBAN TEENS LURED BY DRUG TRY TO CLEAN UP.

Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Sometimes, Emily Marrs still sees ``the shadow people.''

They are the dark figures that haunted her when she was coming off a high. They are the ones that remind her of the hold methamphetamine still has on her life.

``I actually was one of those kids who carried a gun,'' she said. ``There's a fear that comes when you do meth. There is always that paranoia.''

Growing up in the sprawling suburbs of Santa Clarita - ranked one of the nation's safest cities - meth seemed to be found at every friend's house, at all the parties, she said.

She stole $20 bills from her mother's jean pockets to buy it. She sliced the skin on her arms to relieve the emotional pain the drug caused. She survived an overdose.

But it was in the same community where she found salvation.

``In the end, there was a whole bunch of people who didn't want to see me die,'' said Marrs, now 20, who has been off methamphetamine for nearly three years. ``It was the meetings that saved my life.''

For Marrs and dozens of teens fighting meth addiction, guidance can be found in a place most of them tried to escape: a high school classroom.

Each Tuesday night, about 50 teens gather at Saugus High School, where drug counselors from the local Action Family Counseling Centers push hard for sobriety. Of the 50 teens who attend along with their parents, more than half are there for meth addiction.

At a recent meeting, counselor Angel Duke grilled a teen who swore he'd been off drugs for a week, then admitted it had been only three days since his last hit.

``Do you want to be clean?'' she asks.

The boy mumbles that he doesn't know. He tells her he is on probation for stealing laptops, cell phones, iPods and backpacks. He tells her he is stealing to buy marijuana, but Duke knows better.

``Eventually, you're going to try that one drug, the one that you'll love so much, that you'll be high on stupid,'' she tells him as his grin disappears.

Like many suburbs, Santa Clarita remains vulnerable to meth, say experts.

Its proximity to the Antelope Valley, where meth lab seizures exceeded 100 in 2003, makes it accessible to buyers.

``There's a huge amount of crystal meth in the Santa Clarita Valley,'' Marrs said. ``There's a massive denial about it too.

``Parents want to ignore that this is in the valley. They will say, there is no problem here. This is a perfect town. We moved up here to get away from the San Fernando Valley because my next door neighbor was a drug dealer.''

But there are other reasons too, including economics, said Cary Quashen, president and founder of the Action Family Counseling Centers, a nonprofit program established in 1989.

``There's so much money here, kids have access to it,'' he said. ``In a lot of homes, both parents are working so kids are running amok.''

Quashen said the spread of meth is not just happening in the Santa Clarita Valley. He has opened eight Action centers from Costa Mesa to Oxnard.

``It's got to be the worst drug that has ever hit this world,'' he said. ``It does the most damage. It attacks people of all ages. We're getting people in their 40s who are using it for the first time, for various reasons.''

Besides the physiological destruction meth can have on a user, it also chips away at a family and a community, Quashen and others say.

``The bottom line is our kid isn't dead,'' said one parent at an Action meeting. ``When you first walk into these meetings, you feel like you're the only person who thinks that.''

Santa Clarita sheriff's Detective Daniel Finn said the number of burglaries has steadily increased in the valley, and most of the time, it's a teen stealing to buy meth.

``It's not so much what kids do when they are on meth, it's what they do to get it,'' Finn said. ``We see vehicle burglaries and shoplifting.''

And the burden is also on local hospitals, who say trauma centers become filled with users on Fridays and Saturdays.

``Every physician who works the Emergency Department can say they have at least one patient on meth a week,'' said Dr. Thomas Waskiewas of Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Sylmar.

``What's kind of chilling is how some teenagers will nonchalantly mention they do crystal meth, as if it's just like drinking a beer,'' he said. ``I'm kind of disappointed by the cavalier attitude that the kids have.''

Quashen said the solution lies with parents.

``I don't call it spending quality time with your kids anymore,'' he said. ``I call it quantity time. Parents need to speak to their kids all the time. Teens need their parents even more at that age than when they were little.''

Marrs said she had no idea how her meth use affected her family, until she was taken to a rehabilitation center, and her older brother told her, ``I don't want to see you dead on the street.''

She said she works with Action by speaking to seventh- and eighth- graders, who are the most vulnerable to drugs. And she also has learned how to avoid the triggers that turned her on to meth in the first place.

``My goal right now is to finish college, to keep up with the two jobs I have and to focus on life and not worry about parties,'' she said. ``I don't have to be afraid anymore to be bored.''

Susan Abram, [phone]

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) A father and daughter hold hands as they offer support to one another at an anti-drug meeting at Saugus High School.

(2 -- color in Valley edition only) Action Family Counseling Centers founder Cary Quashen offers a hug during an evening meeting at Saugus High School. The meetings help youngsters kick their drug habits.

(3 -- ran in Valley edition only) Allie Naone, 17, joins other teens for the weekly Action meeting at Saugus High School. Of the teens who attend along with their parents, more than half are there for meth addiction.

(4 -- ran in Valley edition only) Action Family Counseling Centers founder Cary Quashen, who has helped many kids kick their drug habits, listens to a youngster's story at an evening meeting in Saugus.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer