Innovative Program Aims to Wean Youth Off Drugs

It is graduation day. The crowd of teenagers overflows into the hallway. A 16-year-old emerges, declaring his life has changed. Cheers erupt.

The scene is familiar, but this is a different kind of commencement. One more teen has made it through a yearlong, intensive program to wean him off drugs.

It’s another success story for Family Court Judge Bob Gaston, and it’s hard for him to contain his happiness. In his courtroom, he hangs a rainbow-colored “Congratulations” banner and pops open cans of confetti.

“This is the kind of program that makes you want to get up in the morning,” Gaston says.

*

Every Thursday, the judge meets at the Family Court building with a group of counselors, probation officers, public defenders and prosecutors to review the progress of the 120 teenagers in the 5-year-old teen drug court program, one of 91 around the country. Funded by federal grants and local money, the effort combines counseling, after-school programs and acupuncture.

Clark County spends $1,500 a year on each student, a small price, Gaston believes, to save an addict.

The teens are on probation until they graduate. A mistake can get them kicked out and sent to juvenile prison--or they can be given another chance.

Gaston, a former principal and teacher, sorts through a stack of purple file folders, each containing the history of a teen, drug of choice, grades in school, problems at home.

One teen, arrested for drinking, pleads in a letter not to be sent to jail.

“I’m asking you to help me get help for my problem,” the letter reads.

Some in the room want the teen tossed out. Gaston hesitates.

“You know how I hate to give up on a kid,” he says. “If there’s any chance of saving this kid, let’s do it.”

Gaston remembers the kids he gave second chances. He mentions one he almost sent to prison who now has a full-time job and is doing well.

“It’s really gratifying because sometimes you see a kid you agonize over for months, and one day he walks in, and he’s had salvation,” he says.

Tyler Anter, 15, says he reached that point, but it took months.

He struggled in the first part of the four-phase program. The phases are detoxification, education, therapeutic care and after-care.

Tyler kept testing positive for marijuana and methamphetamine, or speed. He went to jail four times.

“He has used every substance known to man,” says juvenile counselor Cindy Fischer.

Tyler, a handsome kid who dreams of becoming a model, began using drugs as a fifth-grader. He hung out with an older crowd and was depressed over a girl and the breakup of his mother and stepfather’s marriage.

His mother abused drugs, family members and program officials say. When Tyler was in junior high, the two did drugs together, he says.

“I thought it was wrong, but when I was on drugs it didn’t matter,” he says.

Tyler moved in with his grandparents, and they sent him to a private rehabilitation clinic in Utah, but it didn’t work. He finally entered teen drug court last year after getting picked up for marijuana possession.

He was stealing money from his grandparents and even took their car on a joy ride. He was failing all his classes. A friend’s fatal heroin overdose brought him face to face with death. “I welcomed it. I wasn’t scared of it.”

After a while, Tyler started participating more in required group counseling sessions. He didn’t want to go to jail again.

“I’m tired of drugs. I don’t want to be 20 years old having nothing,” he said.

Approaching graduation, Tyler hasn’t used drugs in months.

“I just want him to get a chance,” his grandfather, Alan Curtis, says.

Fischer predicts Tyler will be one of the program’s success stories.

But when judges and counselors aren’t there, Tyler knows it will be

tough.

“Still every single day I crave speed,” he says.

*

The line of teenagers waiting to get five needles stuck into their ears weaves around the corner at a small office inside a strip mall.

When teens are first admitted to drug court, they undergo acupuncture six days a week at Choices Unlimited, a for-profit counseling and treatment program. Acupuncture is a detoxification method that helps the teens relax, counselors say.

Outside the room, another line of teens waits to take urine tests. This day is especially busy because there is only one employee to oversee the testing, which makes for some restless teens.

“Cindy, it’s a madhouse,” one teen yells at Fischer as he passes through the hall on in-line skates.

In the first phase of the program, the teens are tested three times a week. By the final phase, twice-a-week tests are required.

Instead of after-school activities, drug court and its regimen consume these teens’ lives. They also come to Choices for group counseling and to read what they have written in their journals, requirements of the program.

“For many, this is their first relationship with a responsible adult,” Fischer says.

And for many it’s where they meet others struggling with the same problems.

The key here is keeping them busy. Those in the program who don’t have jobs must spend every weekday afternoon at Aspen Community Services. Aspen picks the teens up from their counseling sessions and takes them to local Boys and Girls Clubs for tutoring, sports and vocational training.

“It gives them something to do with their time,” said Alyssa Pease, case manager for Aspen, “so they’re not just sitting at home thinking about drug use.”

*

Back in court, several teens get surprise drug tests, ordered by Gaston.

One starts to explain why he didn’t attend school, but a bailiff points to a sign that says “No! No Drugs! No Excuses!

If a urine sample reveals drugs, Gaston sends the teen to juvenile hall. The first offense is four days, then seven days, then 10. After that, Gaston is supposed to kick them out of the program. But he sometimes gives fourth and fifth chances.

For those who are in perfect compliance with the program and graduate to the next phase, Gaston hands out certificates for CDs.

“It’s behavior modification,” he says. “You give rewards for good behavior. You give consequences for bad.”

On this day, 16-year-old Sierra is ordered locked up for 10 days. She’s been using again, and it’s the third time she’s been caught. She spent Christmas and New Year’s Day behind bars.

“She was doing very good,” said her father, Phil, who spoke on condition that the family’s surname not be used. “She just got hung up with [the wrong] people.”

Sierra spent years as the star of her softball team. Her brother Ashton, now 15, was in Cub Scouts. They both were on the honor roll. School pictures taken through the years line the staircase walls of the family’s home.

Those days are in the past. Sierra and Ashton turned to marijuana, mostly for fun, they say. They even were dealing for a while.

“Once you start doing drugs, you’re a little scavenger--you smoke a lot,” Sierra said.

A month after Sierra received her 10-day confinement, the siblings are in trouble again. Sierra got high on cocaine and had to persuade Gaston to give her one final chance.

Ashton is again in jail, this time for using LSD. After a week behind bars and an evaluation, counselors decide he belongs in an inpatient drug rehabilitation center.

But two weeks later, Ashton is kicked out of the rehab center for using drugs. After counselors campaign for him, Ashton waits to see if he will be allowed back.

The drug court program has done all it can for him.

“Ashton will never stop smoking pot,” his mother says.

*

The graduate this day is 16-year-old Justin McBride. It took him a year and a month to complete the program, and his parents, relatives and friends are here for the big day.

Since its start in 1995, 311 of the 601 teens who entered the program graduated. The court soon will begin tracking how many teens are arrested after they graduate.

“We’re not going to be there,” Gaston tells Justin. “You’re going to have to make the right decisions.”

And with that, Justin is released. He walks into the hall, holding his diploma, confetti flying and his family cheering.