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By Rae Kruger and Karin Elton
Independent Staff Writers

MARSHALL -- A marijuana joint or a hit of methamphetamine might have replaced a can of beer in the hands of high school students.

Alcohol use has declined among high-school age students, according to authorities who work at Marshall High School and in the region in drug treatment and law enforcement. However, the use of marijuana and other drugs such as methamphetamine is on the rise.

Identifying users can be tough, since use has no socio-economic or gender boundaries. But those who work with high school students, arrest them or treat them, say there is a drug problem.

Chemical dependency counselors are more inclined to believe that users are rapidly becoming the norm among high school students.

Police officers aren't startled by estimates that 80 percent of high school students in a local high school may have tried marijuana. They focus less on percentages of users and more on their growing concern for the overall increase of drug use by local high school students, the younger age of users and the use of harder drugs including methamphetamine.

Statistics from a student survey conducted by the state indicate about 30 percent of Lyon County senior boys had used marijuana at least once in 2000 and about 27 percent of the girls had used marijuana at least once in the same year. Some believe the real percentages are higher.

It's not an exclusive club.

Users can be as young as 12. They can be members of the basketball team. They can be on the marching band. They can be honor students. They can be students who struggle academically.

And they are found in ever-increasing numbers.

It's caused concern among drug treatment counselors, law enforcement and school officials, who often work together on drug-related issues.

High school is different from the days when he attended, said Bob Schmillen, the chemical dependency treatment coordinator for Project Turnabout Programs in Granite Falls and Willmar. Back then, drug users accounted for a small percentage of the student body. A majority of kids were involved in extracurricular school activities and those who used drugs were the outsiders.

Now, the students involved in extracurricular activities make up only a small percentage of the student body and even those kids can be drug users, Schmillen said.

"Now, those who don't use drugs or alcohol are the outsiders," Schmillen said.

Watching students walk down the halls of Marshall High School between classes, it may be difficult to determine who is using, but based on what Schmillen and chemical assessment counselor Bernie Przymus see every day, many students are involved.

Przymus works for Lyon Lincoln Human Service. As part of his job, he works with students at the Life Skills Center Alternative School in Marshall.

"They tell me the only difference between them and the kids at the high school is that they got caught," Przymus said.

Przymus handles 100 to 150 cases a year and typically does 12 to 15 chemical use assessments a week.

He sees kids as young as 12 who are heavy marijuana users and kids as young as 14 who are heavy methamphetamine users. When his clients tell him that 85 to 90 percent of local high school students use drugs, he's inclined to trust that figure based on his own work, he said.

The general public may believe most of the high school drug users in Marshall are students at the alternative school, Przymus said. That's false, he said.

Ruth Larson, the chemical dependency counselor at the alternative school, said only a small percentage of alternative students are users.

"If you're looking at 85 to 90 percent of the high school students using, you don't have 85 to 90 percent of the students at the alternative school. Where are the other ones at?" Pryzmus said.

Jim Marshall, the Marshall Police Department's school liaison officer with the Marshall School District, said drug users are becoming the insiders, not the outsiders

"It's a legitimate concern here, not just in Marshall but in other schools," Marshall said.

Marshall High School Principal Wade McKittrick said, "If one child is using we have a problem. One child is too many. It doesn't matter if it's one or 500. Am I concerned about Marshall High School? Yes, I am. I really believe that access in the community (to drugs) is very easy. Any time access is easy the amount of users goes up and there is more potential for kids to get involved."

According to the 2001 Minnesota Student Survey conducted by the Department of Children Family and Learning (CFL), 30 percent of Lyon County senior boys indicated they had used marijuana at least once in the past 12 months. Twenty-seven percent of the girls had used marijuana at least once in the past 12 months.

Sixteen percent of the freshman boys and 12 percent of the freshman girls had used at least once in the past 12 months, the survey said.

The survey also said seven percent of Lyon County seniors had used methamphetamine at least once in the past 12 months. Ten percent of the freshman boys and six percent of the girls had used it at least once in 12 months.

"I think we're all in the same boat," McKittrick said of drug use at schools in the region and state. "When you have a smaller school, the numbers may be lower but the percentages (of students using) is about the same."

Ruth Larson, the chemical dependency counselor for the Life Skills Alternative School is more skeptical of the CFL numbers. The numbers are not necessarily reliable because of the survey conditions, she said.

The survey was administered badly, Larson said. Freshmen and seniors were placed in the same theater.

"That's always a bad mix," Larson said. "They started talking with each other."

Przymus said an assistant wrestling coach at a satellite school told him that some wrestlers claimed that 85 to 90 percent of the high school students had tried marijuana or were using it regularly. This information was shared during an informal discussion between students and a coach they trusted, Przymus said.

"What's scary to me is I'm not getting the referrals from (Marshall High School)," Przymus said. "I know there are users there."

Marshall said he contacts parents when he suspects drug use and provides them with information related to assessment and treatment. Parents take over from there.

While Przymus respects this procedure, he has received referrals from school administrators at a Lyon County school and from staff at Marshall's alternative school.

"The difference I see with the alternative school (or the other area high school) is I'm getting referrals from the school and not just the parents," Przymus said. "(In Marshall) why does it just have to be from the alternative school?"

Przymus and Schmillen also work often with high school students who may be referred to them from the legal system.

Police and sheriff's deputies often get a firsthand look at high school users.

"Methamphetamine is the biggest epidemic," Marshall Police Det. Paula Curry said.

Dan Louwagie, the coordinator of the Brown, Lyon and Redwood Drug Task Force said meth users often find their emotional and physical health deteriorates dramatically with meth use.

"The whole person changes, everything changes," Louwagie said. The drug can be so controlling that "users don't care about family, friends, school. All they care about is getting high."

Officials said access is a key to drug use, and there are plenty of chances for high school students to get high.

Drugs such as methamphetamine and marijuana are increasingly easier to get, and in the case of meth, easy to make.

"Look under the kitchen sink. Everything you need is there. That's how scary it is," Schmillen said.

If a user wants a recipe, they just need to search the Internet, he said.

"I would suspect that if you ask students what is easier to get, alcohol or marijuana, they'd say it's easier to get marijuana than alcohol," Marshall said.

For many, drug use may start with a simple cigarette.

Officials said there are direct links between starting with a puff of a cigarette, a swig of beer or a drag on a marijuana joint, all of which are considered gateway drugs, Larson said.

"They're the first step on the ladder," McKittrick said. "It is a big deal because whenever someone comes off that tobacco buzz, it's 'what's next?' That's the question that we have to ask ourselves. Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs."

Nine out of 10 people who use tobacco become addicted. One out of 10 end up addicted to alcohol, Larson said.

"(Using drugs) triggers that pleasure center in the brain and is part of the addictive process," Larson said.

Users may start at a party or with a friend or small group of friends.

"To me it's not alarming that everybody is trying it," Przymus said.

The desire to experiment hasn't changed much over the years, he said. What has changed is the number of users and volatility of the drugs available. There are kids who will experiment with drugs, find that it doesn't suit them and move on, Przymus said. But there are those who have a predisposition to addiction, others with no family structure, no boundaries for their behavior and uninvolved parents who can get caught in the drug-use rut.

Officials said they have plenty of evidence to show that drug use is increasing in Marshall High School but they aren't always being caught in school. When a student uses alcohol before or during school, the smell can often give them away. It's more difficult to determine if students are using drugs, Marshall said.

Lyon County Attorney Rick Maes said many drug cases surface during a traffic stop. He believes students are smart enough not to deal on campus where they can be caught.

Przymus said he advocates using drug dogs in the high school to reveal more about the extent of drug use among mainstream high school students.

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