WOW! a Kid . . . be a mentor.
Mi Animo Prevention's: The dope on drugs
Harry Alejo: 'Young people are the future.'
Harry Alejo holds the “ Meth-like” evidence in a zip-lock plastic bag. As the investigator for the Alamosa County Sheriff’s Department he sees the effects that drug abuse causes on youth and families.
“ Meth is starting to come into the six-county area; but not as much as marijuana and cocaine. The older people are going to cocaine and the younger use more marijuana. I haven’t seen any Ecstasy pills—just mainly marijuana because it’s cheaper to buy.”
“I know that it sounds corny to say this. Nowadays both parents have to work—it takes two to make a household. At the end of the day, if parents would just sit down for 30 minutes with their child—talk a little about how drugs are illegal and dangerous and just talk about anything in general. Turn the TV off and say to your kid, ‘Let’s talk for a minute.’ I think if that would happen, I think kids would bond better with their parents and families. Then they’d let their parents know when something was up.”
What parents should look for are changes in behavior, attitude, staying out late, change of friendships and changes from one day to the next. “Parents might see that their ‘nice little Johnny’ isn’t nice anymore and they’ll complain that he doesn’t want to hang around us anymore. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that something has changed,” Harry says.
Parents need to be careful and realize that not all these behaviors mean that their child is doing drugs. Teens do go through stages of change during those adolescent years.
Some of the other behavior changes that youth might display if they are using marijuana, cocaine, shrooms (mushrooms, psilocybin) or methamphetamine are: outbursts in temper, drunken behavior, impaired motor skills, and red watery eyes. Parents should notice if their youth have runny noses, vomiting, itching, and drowsiness or even slurred speech, Harry says.
Check the child’s room when the child is away at school. “Check the tree house when Johnny is at school. Make sure he’s at the movies when he says he is. Know who he is out with.”
Harry is also a mentor for the Mi Animo Prevention program through the San Luis Valley Mental Health Center. He says of his youngster, “He’s pretty cool! We talk about everything!” As for the reason he became involved as a mentor, he says, “These young people are the future. I know that kids sometimes need someone to talk to. There’s somebody for everybody out there and kids need a way to relate their feelings.”
Harry encourages parents to just talk to their children, “ask the hard questions, are you drinking beer, doing drugs?”
