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Maria Shilaos, KSL NewsradioPart one of "The Child First and Always," an in-depth series.
Some of the drugs that were popular in the late sixties and seventies are making a comeback.
Holly Tanski: "Right now we're seeing a lot of mushroom use and a little bit more LSD than we've had. It seems to be having sort of a resurgence."
Holly Tanski is a licensed substance abuse counselor at Primary Children's Adolescent Dayspring program.
Holly Tanski: "One of the biggest issues is heroine use, and I'm seeing much younger heroine use in kids. Smokable heroine doesn't need to be very pure because it's not an injectable, so it's actually cheaper and easier to get than marijuana."
Jamie, sixteen-year-old: "I have smoked weed, drank, prescription pills, coke, ecstasy, meth, opium, salvia, stuff like that."
Jamie is a 16-year-old, who hit lows with a variety of drugs, before her mom admitted her into Dayspring.
Jamie: "You feel like you want to die. I felt sick, I was hallucinating, and it was almost to the point where I felt the disgust for myself for doing it. And it wasn't fun, but I'd always do more so I wouldn't have to deal with it."
Diane, Jamie's mom: "I was beginning to feel completely hopeless about her, about her future, about what was going to happen to her."
Jamie's mom, Diane, says not only was her daughter sneaking out of the house, but she had a nasty attitude as well.
Diane: "I was afraid of her. I was more afraid of her emotionally than physically although I knew that she was capable of hurting me physically. I just couldn't deal with it. I was right on the edge myself."
Jamie: "I all of a sudden didn't care about my education. I'd just go to my first couple of classes, maybe, and then sluff and do drugs all day. I lost trust with my mom. I always fought with her."
Diane: "Jaime was really great at distracting. If I asked her a question about 'Where have you been?' suddenly here's what happened while I was gone, and it was a big deal."
Holly Tanski: "Kids hide it well. Most kids that I see in treatment have been using anywhere from at least a year to a year and a half or two years before they get sloppy enough to get caught."
And Tanski says no matter what kids say, if parents find a pipe or any other type of drug paraphernalia in their home, their kids are using drugs.
Tomorrow in part two of our series, Maria will look at how easy it is for kids to get drugs.
