Poway Drug Use: Too Much Talk or Not Enough?

This story is part of a series on Poway drug use that includes videos of young Powegians speaking frankly about the issue. For more details about the genesis of this series, please see the .

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Depending on whom you ask, the issue of drug abuse—primarily of OxyContin—in Poway and, more specifically, at Poway High School is either a serious problem or one of little significance compared to other communities in the county. 

Some students at the school maintain that there isn’t a significant problem and said some media reports to the contrary are false or are misconstrued. School administrators call the issue one that is typical of any high school in the county, while some parents believe that drug abuse on the campus of Poway High and in the city are reaching epidemic proportions. And Poway’s mayor said the city acknowledges the problem of drugs in general in the city and has taken appropriate measures to counter its growth and, when it comes to law enforcement, one illegal drug abuser is one too many.

According to the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, prescription drugs are the second most abused illegal drug (behind marijuana) by children ages 12-17 and the most commonly used among children ages 12-13. Drugs like Vicodin, Xanax, Valium and OxyContin are being substituted for “street drugs” because children assume they are safer since they were prescribed by a doctor. What's more, they're often easily available in the family medicine cabinet.

The home medicine cabinet is not the only place that students find prescription drugs. They obtain them from illegal Internet sites, pharmacy employee theft and “dirty doctors," according to officials.

From 2005-09, San Diego County experienced a 74 percent increase in deaths from prescription drugs, reaching a death toll of 621 in 2009. According to the Sheriff’s Department, the problem started in the upper-middle-class areas north of La Jolla—affluent areas such as Del Mar, Carmel Mountain, Rancho Bernardo and especially the Poway area. “Hot spots” for prescription drug activity in San Diego include everything within a 20-mile radius of where Ted Williams Parkway intersects with the I-15 and I-56.

Regardless of the numbers, gauging the extent of the problem depends on whom you ask. 

'... Blown It Way Out of Proportion'

“It’s not a huge problem—it’s how it is everywhere,” said Poway High student Anna Frisch.  “I think drugs [on campus] is always a problem, but it’s not something that we need to put a lot of energy into right now. … We need to be aware of it, but it’s not a huge problem, really.”

Other students at Poway High feel the school is being singled out for a problem that is more prevalent in the community than on campus.

Poway High student Sydney Van Putten said she feels her school has been slighted by recent media reports that tie her schoolmates to an apparent increase in prescription drug busts in the area.

“We’ve had a couple of instances with OxyContin … nothing really related to the school. But I feel like the [media] has taken that issue and blown it way out of proportion,” she said. “The guy who, maybe a year ago ... got busted for OxyContin, that got pinned on the high school, when in reality, the guy who got busted was 22 years old ... and didn’t go to Poway High School.”

VanPutten said that her school isn’t unlike many others in the county that are facing drug abuse problems, but because of the affluence of the community, PHS is "kind of looked at more harshly," she said. "When something goes awry in Poway, it’s automatically pinned on Poway High."

A Parent's Perspective

The parent of one Poway High student said teenagers who think drug abuse on the district’s campuses is no big deal are ill-informed.

Steve Vaus, a well-known community leader who ran for City Council in 2010, said he speaks for many other parents when he says the district could do more to acknowledge the problem.

“The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has made it abundantly clear that we have a serious drug problem here in Poway,” Vaus said.  “We’re part of an area where the [sheriff’s deputies] say there are a lot of problems currently with OxyContin. I have no reason to doubt that what the Sheriff’s Department says about the problem of OxyContin in our area is true.”

Vaus said the issue of OxyContin abuse might be better addressed by parents of Poway High students if they knew the extent of the problem and blames the school district for withholding information on drug abuse incidents on its campuses.

“Part of the problem is that we don’t have a great enough awareness of the problem in Poway," he said. "I think that the schools should be charged with informing the parents of a drug-related arrest or event related to a drug problem."

Vaus claims that parents are informed when a child comes to school with head lice or whooping cough but aren’t informed when there is a drug problem on campus.

“If they did that, then the parents would have more information about the problem, and could talk with their kids more about the dangers of drugs—more than what they already know and discuss with their kids.”

He also said some parents believe that district officials don’t want to divulge information about drug busts at school because it might create a negative impression of the school within the community. In fact, he said the school district needs to be more forthcoming about the drugs incidents they have on their campuses, including at the middle schools.

“If they did, then the parents would be more involved,” said Vaus. “They would see a lot more parents showing up at these Task Force meetings if the parents had a better idea of the extent of the drug problems at our schools.”

Stopping the Finger Pointing

Despite the argument that the school district isn't working to address the problem, a spokesperson for PUSD said they've offered forums.

"Poway Unified works closely with the Poway Sheriff's Department and the San Diego Police Department concerning teen drug and alcohol use," said spokesperson Sharon Raffer. "Information forums have been held at our schools hosted by the PTA with law enforcement speakers."

Raffer also said the district has the Caring Connections Center, a resource center for parents and students, and beginning this semester, the "Student Support Services will be providing information in parent newsletters concerning drug information and drug use."

PHS Principal Scott Fisher bristled at the suggestion that he or his staff would withhold important information from parents about drug abuse incidents at his school or elsewhere in the district. 

Fisher said while there have been drug use incidents at the school, they have all been handled appropriately and according to district policy. Blaming the district for the ills of the community, Fisher said, isn’t fair.

“People need to stop pointing the finger at who is to blame and just start looking for solutions to the problem,” said Fisher. 

“To combat this drug problem that we have in our society, it’s going to take a group effort to get it done. It takes the parents first. Then you have to get the school and law enforcement involved, but it also takes getting the city involved because it’s not just a school problem, it’s a community problem.

“Pointing the finger at any one of those groups is just unfair,” he said. 

But, Fisher said, schools can't handle all the problems.

“Cities generally have more finances to handle the problem than the other two groups do,” said Fisher. “School districts can’t be held solely responsible for drug abuse education, but neither can the city. It has to start in the home.”

A Lot of Time and Money

But Mayor Don Higginson said the city is doing all it can to stem the rising tide of drug abuse in the community. Citing information he said the Sheriff’s Department has provided the City Council, OxyContin has become a drug of choice in Poway, and city leaders are doing all they can to battle the problem.

“It’s a nasty, terrible drug, that OxyContin, and the city has undergone a massive effort to combat the problem of prescription drug abuse in Poway,” Higginson said. “We’ve invested a lot of time and money into educational programs for the kids and young adults in the community, and also to inform the parents about the dangers of these types of drugs.”

He said the city is involved in teaching parents too, because the council believes the issue is a family-type drug problem and that kids who are using OxyContin are often getting the drug from their parents medicine cabinets. Higginson said the city’s efforts also include informing the community of drug abuse problems, which has included working with the school district and law enforcement.

“We have invested a lot of resources into this matter, including placing community officers on the campuses, and we have a strong enforcement policy with the Sheriff’s Department," he said. “We are, I believe, the most proactive city in the whole county when it comes to dealing with this problem of drugs in our community.”

The Solution

Poway Sheriff Sgt. Daniel Vengler said regardless of the number of teens who are abusing drugs or where the problem stems from, if one teen abuses illegal drugs, "it's a big problem."

"There will always be the kids who've never touched any drugs and wouldn't even know where to get it," he said. "Then there are the kids who have tried it and know exactly where to get it. I don't know what the overall perception is at Poway High, but if one kid is using drugs then it's a problem."

Though there isn't a clear way to gather data on how many teens in the Poway area have used illegal drugs, Vengler said that during the week of Jan. 17, four teens were discovered with marijuana at Poway High (though he couldn't confirm whether all four were students) and during the week of Jan. 24, three young people in Poway were caught with heroin.

"We're here to enforce the laws, not tell you what's wrong and what's right," he said. "But, obviously, if someone doesn't think a gram of heroin is a big deal, that's a problem."

But to really battle the problem, it's going to take a combination of getting the parents involved, educating school kids, and having residents all working together to mitigate this problem within the city, said Fisher, Vaus and Higginson.

And, some of the teens at PHS are aware that it takes a team effort and that includes the teens.

"If they just talk to us we'll tell them everything we know," Van Putten said. "We talk about it all the time in school."

Keri Yednak and J. Dean Raifsnider contributed to this report.

For information on teen drug use, check out the following sites:

• adolescent-substance-abuse.com/
• samhsa.gov/home
• nida.nih.gov/