SUBURBIA SHAKEN BY TEEN DEATHS VIOLENCE SPOTLIGHTS YOUTH DRUG CULTURE.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Staff Writer

The vicious murders of three teen-agers from the San Fernando Valley area in recent weeks has challenged the belief that good schools, strong family ties and vibrant suburban communities will insulate children from the scourge of drugs.

Coming from drug deals gone awry rather than overdoses, the murders have stunned police, educators and parents because of the violence of the deaths and what appears to be the widespread availability and abuse of drugs.

Police and counselors who work with troubled youths say younger kids are now dealing drugs - especially very high-priced and potent marijuana - on most high school campuses.

Some of them are supplied by organized networks of smugglers and cultivators, placing even young teens into contact with a very dangerous world of adult criminals.

``This is frightening,'' said Monroe High School's Assistant Principal Thane Opfell. ``It almost sounds like the brutal tactics used in the 1930s in settling debts. It's particularly tragic that it's appearing at this age.

``And it's not unique to just one neighborhood. The pattern suggests that it could happen anywhere, and we need to be prepared for that.''

Three weeks ago, Chris McCulloch, 13, of La Canada Flintridge and Blaine Talmo, 14, of Glendale were brutally beaten to death in a Glendale elementary school playground. Last week, the bullet-riddled body of 15- year-old Nicholas ``Nick'' Markowitz of West Hills was found several days after police say he was kidnapped because of his older brother's drug debts.

Those arrested in the cases are little older than the victims, all of them from suburban or affluent communities.

``They're getting in over their heads,'' said Tim Brown, a Simi Valley Police Department school resource officer.

``If a 14- or 15-year-old owes a drug dealer $100 to $200, it's the same as a 30-year-old. They'll go after the kid as strongly as the adults. I don't think we as adults take it as seriously as it is out there. That culture out there is serious.''

Officer Sue Shine, a school resource officer assigned to Glendale High School, said the suburban youths are unprepared for the high-powered world of drug dealing they are encountering.

``They're just doing it because they think everyone's having fun,'' she said. ``They probably have no idea about the levels of sophistication of the people growing it and the costs involved in screwing up dealers.''

Valley narcotics officers said the amount of cash involved is staggering, with the average price of good-quality marijuana at $570 per ounce and high-quality pot reaching $2,000 per ounce.

``What's mind-boggling is the amount of money kids will spend to buy marijuana,'' said LAPD Officer Don Banta, a narcotics filing officer. ``The younger kids buy the name-brand, higher-quality stuff . . . It's actually big business. It can be very profitable.''

At Simi Valley High School, the going rate for ``chronic,'' a more popular type of marijuana, is $300 per ounce, said one student recovering from his drug addiction through a teen support program called ACTION in Studio City.

Students get the money to buy the drugs by stealing from their parents, saving their lunch money for weeks, or pooling their money with other kids, said the recovering 16-year-old, who declined to give his name.

Some kids grow the marijuana seeds right in their own closets.

Other kids younger than him opt to sell the drugs for 19- and 20-year-old dealers - and face the consequences.

``I've seen kids get beaten up. I've had friends jacked up because they made a deal to sell it, and then they stole it. It's going to come back to bite them because $20 is worth more than they think to these guys,'' said the 16-year-old.

Arrests for substance abuse at or around the Valley's high schools have increased at eight of the 17 campuses, according to Los Angeles Unified School District's school police statistics.

Districtwide, about 17 in every 10,000 students were arrested for a chemical substance offense in the 1998-99 school year, nearly the same as in 1999-2000, according to the statistics.

North Hollywood High School saw the most marked increase from 24 arrests in the 1997-98 school year, compared to 37 arrests in the 1998-99 year. Reseda, Van Nuys and Monroe high schools also saw significant increases.

Brown said that within the past couple of years, he has noticed seventh- and eighth-graders selling drugs in Simi Valley - a new trend.

``What's scary to me is when these Simi Valley kids go to the Valley or a drug-infested area and they don't know what they're getting into. It's a serious problem.''

Though marijuana is still the drug of choice at the high school level, it is what narcotics officers call ``the gateway drug'' to other drugs, including speed, LSD and ecstasy - the other favorites for students.

Amanda Rowland, 17, a former Conejo Valley High student, said chronic is the current hot type of marijuana at schools because ``the high lasts longer, and the hits are longer and faster, and you don't have to smoke as much.''

``If you want drugs, you can find them at that school or from Valley dealers,'' said Rowland, wearing a home arrest anklet as she attended an ACTION teen support program to get off drugs. ``I'm proud of myself for getting help. I've been clean since early March.''

The students hide out at a remote spot on the campus to do drugs, behind a handball court, in the bathroom and even in the classroom for the true addicts, some teens said during a teen support group meeting.

Shine, the Glendale officer, said kids hide marijuana in the caps of their pens or in their shoes - or core out an apple into a makeshift bong.

``They'll smoke right out of the apple. If somebody comes up, they just cover the hole and eat it like an apple,'' she said. ``These students are very savvy. They'll make the drug deals right in the classroom.

``It's an easier way for them to make money than to work at McDonald's.''

Prices have gone up dramatically, police say, partly because cultivators - who face felonies if caught by police - are more sophisticated, using costly indoor lamps to properly groom the prime marijuana.

``You get less for your money, but it's better stuff,'' Shine said.

One parent involved in ACTION's parent and teen support program said after discovering that her 13-year-old son was taking drugs, she did surveillance on her own at his Simi Valley school.

``His source was waiting for him right outside the schoolyard,'' she said.

She caught the man in a beat-up van selling to her son and quickly jotted down his license plate number and called it in to administrators and school police, she said.

``They told me this is an isolated case, and it's at all the schools,'' she said. ``Basically, nothing was done. He's probably still out there.''

She added: ``A lot more parents need to realize what's going on. I started searching his room, and I wish I had done it sooner. You got to talk to your kids all the time.''

And communities need to change their perceptions, said Cary Quashen, president of ACTION, a nonprofit support group for teens and their parents.

``The kids will tell you, hey, marijuana is just about legal. They'll give it to you if you're sick. And you hear from the parents, well, he's only smoking marijuana. It's a natural herb. Society is so nonchalant about it. I think that's pretty dangerous.''

For the friends of 15-year-old Nick Markowitz, the murder has been a rude awakening, and many have drawn a black ink X on their hands to remind them of what happened.

Bryan Marks, 16, a good friend of Nick Markowitz, said drugs are quite a problem in affluent areas.

``I never thought it would get this bad,'' Marks said. ``It's never worth killing anybody. It's money, and money can be replaced. Life can't.''

TROUBLE SIGNS

The following are tips for parents to identify behavioral signs of their child using drugs or alcohol, according to ACTION, a parent and teen support program in Studio City:

--Drop in grades - a slow decline in past year or a sudden decrease.

--Switching of friends: Are you having more objections to your child's choice of friends and not meeting them?

--Emotional highs and lows with child getting easily upset, emotional state changes rapidly and does not seem as happy.

--Defiance of rules and pushing limits at home and school, not doing chores.

--Growing more secretive, sharing very little of their personal problems.

--Loss of initiative, less energy, sleeping more than usual.

--Withdrawing from family events, meals, outings and church.

--Change in physical hygiene, wearing the same clothes and not bathing daily.

--Not informing you of school activities, open houses, meeting times with teachers, suspensions, warnings.

--Giving excuses for staying out late.

--Spending a lot of time in their own room.

--Suspicion of money missing from parents, brothers, sisters.

--Alcohol or prescription drugs missing.

ACTION offers a 24-hour help hotline: (800) FOR-TEENs.

- Lisa Van Proyen

Daily News Reporter Orith Goldberg contributed to this story.

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