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About Siletz news / (Siletz, OR) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 2009)
TRIBAL PROGRAM NEWS Notes from Healthy Family Healthy Child Project The good news is that illegal drug use • A family history of substance or by our kids is down. The bad news is that alcohol abuse the abuse of preseribed drugs is up and • Depression parents and grandparents are the source • Low' self-esteem of these drugs. • Feel like they don't fit in and are not Today, teen-agers are not using as popular with the mainstream much cocaine, crack. LSD and ecstasy • Frequently feel sluggish and have as the teen-agers of the 1960s. Kids have difficulty sleeping found other ways and means to get high; * Aggressive and rebellious attitude painkillers and other prescription drugs toward authority figures . are being abused at record levels. This upcoming generation of teens has been Prescription drug abuse is increas given the name “Generation Rx.” ing; the main reason is they are so easily Teens often get caught raiding their parents' or grandparents’ medicine cabi accessible. If your child has one or more nets in order to get high. For the first time, of the above behaviors, seek help from a professional. national studies show that today’s teens Some things you can share with lcvi commons ana Jeremy Sweet register for the White Bison training held at Chi are more likely to have abused a prescrip your teen about prescription medications nook Winds Casino Resort in December. Helping out with registration are Edwina tion painkiller than any illicit drug. include: Flagg, Jennifer Metcalf, LeiLani Cordova. Jenifer Most and Shannon Cook-Wright. Teen-agers can get involved with prescription drugs in various ways. The White Bison s focus is wellness or Wellbriety, which means to nurture the whole experimental stage can be very danger • Pharmaceuticals taken without a pre person, the whole family and the whole community - to move people beyond sur scription or a doctor’s supervision can ous because kids often don't see the link vival to thriving in a cultural way. The "well" part of Wellbriety means to live the be just as dangerous as taking illicit between their actions today the conse healthy parts of the principles, laws and values of traditional culture. drugs or alcohol. quences of their actions tomorrow. • Abusing painkillers is like abusing Most teens have a tendency to feel heroin because their ingredients are indestructible and immune to the prob similar (both are opiates). lems that others experience. Some teens will experiment and stop, while others • Prescription medications are power ful substances. Medications help sick may continue to use occasionally without by Walt Klamath people and are administered by a doc any significant problem. Then there are tor. When prescription medication is Well, another year has come and gone. Time is going too fast, I still am in about those who develop a dependency; these June, I think, maybe last year. It’s said that time flies when one is having fun; didn’t are the ones who need immediate inter not used for sickness and not admin realize how much fun I have been having. vention and help learning to make better istered by a professional, it becomes I go to prison once a month. By golly, seems like I just get back and they call again. decisions. a controlled substance and the impact It’s impossible to predict which teens I have been going into the prison system now for a number of years. on the person can be deadly. 1 have met a lot of people and have seen a few after release. I don’t know how will experiment and stop and which ones • Many pills look the same and teen will develop serious problems. Know many do well afterward, but I personally know 13. If there are that many, I know then agers can get them mixed up. This there are a lot more. what your teen is doing and who they are can cause different reactions in dif I have not seen as many Tribal members as I would like; for some reason I don’t doing it with. The following are some ferent people because of the body’s get to see them. I don’t know if they are in the institution or another. Lately, I have warning signs of teen-agers at risk for chemistry. It s extremely dangerous been going into the Santiam; that is a minimal security, get those from OSP, Milk developing serious prescription drug to take pills that are unknown. dependency: Creek and Santiam. • Mixing drugs with other substances is Sometimes I get up to 42 for the sweat ceremony. I see many from Grand Ronde very dangerous. Some people have al Hoopa, Kurok, Klamath people. Some are from local areas like Summit. lergic reactions to different chemicals I have not gone to OSCI for a long time; Two Rivers I went to when I was hunt when they are mixed together. Narcotics Anonymous Toll-Free ing, Ukia and Snake River also. I don’t know who else goes to the prisons, but there Help Line - 877-233-4287 are not enough of us doing this type of work, What can you do to help prevent teens Many are getting up in years so hopefully some young bucks will step forward or any other person from getting involved For information on Alcoholics and pick up the feather. It’s true we cannot change anybody, but we can kind of set a with prescription drug abuse? The best Anonymous: www.aa-oregon.org/ direction and nudge a little bit. But the full responsibility is on their shoulders. thing to do is keep your prescription drugs Many of them have never had a taste of Native ceremony or belief till they became in a safe place. incarcerated. Why? I don’t know, maybe it’s not advertised, maybe fear, maybe don’t Don t put them in the medicine cabi have time or maybe not enough is being done in the Indian community. Like so many net in your bathroom because that is the other things, a lot of questions and few answers. first place teen-agers will look. If possible, I believe that we all need to get behind our people and teach. Really, it makes little Siletz Tribal A&D lock them up in a cabinet or safe box. Talk difference how it is approached; in my case, it’s the sweat lodge. However, that is not to your teen and warn them of the dangers Programs the only avenue. Like other self-help activities, it’s a kick-start. One does not have to of prescription drug abuse. be tied down to “this is the only way.” There are many ways. Prevention, Outpatient Sometimes I go on Saturday and turn around and go on Sunday, then at my place Treatment and References on Monday. Kind of busy at times. It hasn’t always been that way, but it’s starting to Generation Rx ? Teens abusing prescrip Women’s Transitional happen more often. tions. MSNBC.com. Report: More I think I will patent a weight-loss thing, though. I usually lose two pounds a youth getting high on painkillers sweat. Of course, that is mostly water I guess, but it’s a loss of weight for a day or Siletz: 800-600-5599 or than on illegal drugs, The Associ two anyway. 7 541-444-8286 ated Press, April 21, 2005. www. At my place, we have sweats every Monday night at 5 - rain, snow, hail or what msnbc.msn.eom/id/7582787/print/l/ have you. Holidays? Well, our lodge is dedicated to recovery and alcohol and drugs Eugene: 541-484-4234 displaymode/1098/. do not take a holiday. In fact, holidays are days to double up so if necessary, we will Drugs and Teens Substance Abuse, www. double up on the stones and water. focusas.com/substanceabuse.html. Our lodge is open to all peoples - red, yellow, white and black. Spirituality belongs Salem: 503-390-9494 The National Clearinghouse for Alcohol to any who seek it, I believe anyway. We have had those who recover in the lodge and and Drug Information (NCADI). we have had those who die because they could not remain clean and sober. It’s not a Portland: 503-238-1512 www.drugfree.org/portal/DrugIssue/ religious ceremony, however, it is spiritual. Features/Prescription JVIedicineMisuse. Walt’s Words of Wit and Wisdom January 2009 • Siletz News • 7
