Thousand Oaks Focuses on Beating Drug Abuse : Hearing: Many of the suggestions involve finding ways to keep youths busy. Residents, educators and sheriff’s deputies attend the session.

A dozen experts joined scores of concerned Thousand Oaks residents Thursday night to try to beat back an epidemic of youth drug abuse.

“The problem, among youth particularly, is growing,” said Elois Zeanah, the Thousand Oaks councilwoman who chairs the Thousand Oaks Crime Prevention Task Force. “We have a serious problem.”

Thursday night’s meeting, which included representatives from the schools, Sheriff’s Department, Parks and Recreation Department and social service agencies, was called in the hope of finding solutions.

Much of the initiative came from Marty and Tom Humphreys, who said their own drug-addicted 17-year-old daughter is on her sixth attempt to kick the habit.

“I just think that it is time to send a message to the dealers,” Marty Humphreys said. “We can’t let the bad guys continue to beat us up.”

Many of the suggestions for fighting drugs centered on finding ways to keep youths busy.

Dennis and Tina Carlson suggested a supervised after-school work program, where students could volunteer to help repair city buildings or build trails in local parks. The problem in affluent suburban communities such as Thousand Oaks, they suggested, might not be too few programs, but unmotivated students.

“We talk about provide, provide, provide,” Tina Carlson said. “No one has talked about instilling a work ethic into these kids.”

After-school sewing or woodworking classes could also keep students away from drugs, some said.

Other ideas centered on finding ways to catch drug users and get them treatment.

Sequoia Junior High School Principal Max Beaman said his school has had some success with using a box in the school’s counseling office, where students can drop anonymous notes telling counselors about fellow students they see headed for trouble.

Beaman also said sixth- and eighth-grade students receive Drug Abuse Resistance Education from sheriff’s deputies.

“We have quite a few programs going, but it isn’t enough,” Beaman said. “We know we need more counselors.”

There are other methods of detecting youth drug abusers besides having fellow students tell counselors about them, said Lorie Sanders, director of the Intervention Institute, a drug rehabilitation program that treats some first-time offenders sentenced by Ventura County courts.

She said parents can use $20 “drug alert kits” to test their child’s room for chemical traces of concealed substances. Also, a crime lab in Ventura will provide parents with free chemical analysis of substances they suspect to be illegal drugs, Sander said.

Such get-tough approaches were crowd-pleasers. Tom Humphreys said the strict attitude should extend to the dealers as well as the users.

“I think we have to put the drug dealers on notice that we’re not going to put up with it anymore,” he said, offering--in full seriousness--to join sheriff’s deputies on their next drug raid “if they need a little muscle.”