Dentist sponsors program
By David Palmer
Among High School students, alcohol is the most dangerous drug of all. And the most abused. Alcohol is the leading cause of accidents, murder and rape among teens, and it is the main pathway to the abuse of other drugs and further mayhem.
 On an evening in early September, parents of students in three Little Rock private schools filled the auditorium at Catholic High School and spent nearly three hours listening to straight talk on alcohol and other substance abuse from Mike Bosse, a Lexington Kentucky policeman and ex-DEA officer, and Pat Sammons, a professor at the University of Kentucky and a recovering alcoholic himself.
The following day Bosse and Hammons visited Catholic again along with Mount St. Mary’s Academy and Episcopal Collegiate School and gave students at each school an hour-long program on drugs from a teen perspective. Dr. Don Deems, who runs a state-of-the-art dental practice in Little Rock and is also an author, speaker and personal and professional coach, picked up the $7,000 tab for the program.
“I decided I could no longer be a bystander,” Dr. Deems said. “Alcohol along with other drugs are a major health problem, and I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. When I heard Pat Sammons speak in Dallas earlier this year I realized how much I didn’t know about the subject. As a health care provider, I knew I should know more about it for the sake of my kids and the for the sake of my patients.
“Too often, the road to addiction begins with our children. And while parents have the best shot at stopping it, they need more information about what they are up against and how to deal with it. These workshops were designed to fill in some of the blanks.”
Deems book, “Secrets for Healthy Living” describes the evolution of his practice from mainly filling teeth to treating gum disease which, science has revealed, is implicated in far more serious health issues than the loss of teeth—heart problems and diabetes, for example.
 Deems’ focus on general health issues now includes alcohol and other drug addictions whose damaging effects he has observed in his practice over the years. Aside from being highly addictive, Methamphetamine, he observes, is an especially toxic drug, which also attacks teeth and gums.
Opening night for the workshop was in the Catholic High auditorium on September 3 with an audience of about 250, according to principal Steve Straessle who said the content of the presentation was “terrific” and had already born fruit.
“The week after the seminar,” Straessle said, “one of our students asked his parents to help him find treatment for his alcohol addiction. He said the presentation made him see that he was heading in the wrong direction and was heading for a lifetime of hurt if he did not seek help immediately. I can’t think of a better result than that.”
Operating in tandem with a giant power point, Bosse and Sammons, began laying out the facts.
By 12th grade, they said, almost two-thirds of students have used alcohol in the past year. Of that number, 43 percent are current drinkers and 24.6 per cent are binge drinkers.
It’s the binge drinkers, Bosse and Sammons point out, who cause a disproportionate amount of trouble. For example: they are five times more likely to have sex; 18 times more likely to smoke cigarettes; 4 times more likely to smoke marijuana; and four times more likely to get into physical fights with other teens. They also have a higher rate of suicide.
Alcohol may be the most abused drug but it is far from the only one in a lineup that includes prescription drugs, which are easy to obtain and cheap, as well as marijuana, methamphetamine, dextromethorphan and DXM.
The more visible signs of abuse among these drugs are loss of coordination, visual and auditory hallucinations, “robo walk” (robotic zombi-like walking), erratic behavior, weird eating and sleeping patterns, isolation and paranoia.
Some of these drugs are smoked, and a “pipe,” which can be made out of straws or hollowed out ballpoints, usually accompanied by butane lighters plus a stiff playing card for crushing the drug, provide further evidence of use. Smoking also produces red or irritated nostrils and burns on thumbs and other places.
Young brains, Bosse and Sammon point out, are more susceptible to drugs than those of adults, and they warn that with continued use eventually a “molecular switch” will be tripped resulting in a complete loss of control over drug use and eventual brain cell damage.
Maintaining a drug addiction is expensive. A cocaine habit, Bosse said, costs about $400 a day-- and the only way for a teenager to raise that kind of money is to deal drugs or steal. Stealing prescription drugs from parents is common, but parents also should be vigilant about articles in the home turning up missing.
Bosse emphasizes that parents cannot outsource their responsibilities for dealing with substance abuse in their children, but he offers them some general tips and a list of drug information web sites for their reference. The tips are:
• Be a good listener
• Give clear no-use messages about alcohol and other drugs
• Help your child deal with peer pressure to use drugs
• Get to know your child’s friends and parents
• Monitor your child’s whereabouts
• Supervise teen activities
• Maintain an open and honest dialogue with your child
• Talk to them about their intentions and attitudes, their friends and peer pressure
Helpful web sites include:
Drugabuse.gov/
Drugfree.org/parent/
Casacolumbia.org/
Samhsa.gov/
Collegedrinkingprevention.gov/
Jointogether.org/
Onedayatatime.com/
With regard to his decision to become proactive in addressing the substance abuse problem, Deems found confirmation in a sign he saw in the Catholic High cafeteria as he headed for the auditorium. It said, “Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all thou shalt not be a bystander.”
Deems devotes full time to his patients during the day and is not equipped to offer free dental care, although he gives some time to clinics, so donating his time and resources to present a workshop on substance abuse, a major health problem for parents and students, is, he feels, the best way for him to give back.
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