Where are the Drugs?

From hallways to houses, parking lots to parties, kids seem to have no problem finding drugs.

"It's anywhere and it's everywhere," said Sgt. Dave Poteat from the Brown County Drug Task Force.

It doesn't matter the kind. It doesn't matter the age. It doesn't matter where you live.

"They're your kids, they're your neighbor's kids," said drug counselor Michael Pinelli. "They're the kids who live in the shady part of town and the kids who live in the nice house up on the hill. They're everywhere."

As two mothers will share with us, the consequences, can be deadly.

"It can happen to anybody," Molly Rockstroh said in an interview with FOX 11. Last year, her son 17-year-old Ryan Rockstroh was a senior at Ashwaubenon high school.

"Ryan was raised in a home where education was valued, where we all loved each other and showed it every single day," Molly Rockstroh said. She said Ryan first started using alcohol and marijuana. That she said, led to more serious drugs.

"OxyContin is the prescription drug that Ryan developed an addiction to and it's very expensive and when it became unaffordable, he ultimately said yes to powder heroin," Molly Rockstroh said. She added, "I know that is the most appalling word in the English language, it is to me. I'm sure he along with us never ever dreamed he would do anything like that."

Ryan battled his addiction for a year. He was in and out of treatment several times. But then, in October of last year, Ryan died of a heroin overdose. He was three weeks shy of his 18th birthday.

"Not only did it cost him everything but now those of us that loved him are left to try to figure out how to make it through the rest of our lives without him. And it's nearly impossible," Ryan's mother said.

Two years earlier, another 17-year-old died from an overdose.

"I asked him if he was doing drugs and he said 'No. People who do drugs are stupid,'" Karen Falck said in an interview with FOX 11. Falck is the mother of Corey McNeil, a co-captain of the wrestling team at De Pere high school. Falck said her son started using prescription drugs the summer before his senior year.

"We started noticing that he was starting to disrespect, talk back, would sometimes not come home at curfew sometimes not come home at all all weekend. He wouldn't answer his cell phone," Falck said.

A few weeks before wrestling season started, McNeil was with some friends. He took an anxiety drug called Xanax, a synthetic narcotic called methadone and the painkiller liquid Vicodin. The combination proved deadly.

"This is a true problem that is really happening to our kids," Falck said.

So how big is the problem? No one can say for sure. But counselors and drug enforcement agents say the trends are not good.

In 2008, the Brown County Drug Task Force made 334 drug arrests in Brown County. This year, they're already at 332 through September. Officers seized 2.65 grams of heroin in 2008. So far this year, they've seized 8.65 grams of heroin. They've also seized nearly three times as many prescription pills, 612 in 2008 compared to 1,592 in 2009.

Sgt. Dave Poteat said drugs can affect anybody.

"A lot of people think that it's gonna be a in a poorer neighborhood that's not always the case," Poteat said. "It can be in very wealthy neighborhoods as well, middle class, lower class, drugs are just as addictive no matter how much money you make or how big of a house you live in. Everyone is susceptible to the temptation of trying it because it'll feel good and get hooked on it."

Drugs are also not very expensive, he said, at least to start.

"If you want to get pretty much any amount of drugs you can buy the smallest amount of any kind of drugs for probably $20-$50," Poteat said. "Some drugs like LSD, acid, you can get a dose of that for $3-$5. That's lunch money. So to start on that stuff is very easy to do for kids. It doesn't take much money to start."

Michael Pinelli, a counselor at Libertas drug treatment center in Green Bay, said the average age for drug experimentation is 11 years old. But he said some kids are starting even younger.

"We see kids, especially kids that wind up on the inpatient unit, 6 and 8 years old and they're smoking marijuana on a regular basis," Pinelli said. "They have big brothers or what have you or friends who have big brothers and can get access to the drug. And that's really kind of frightening."

One common place Pinelli said kids are getting drugs, is at school.

"There's always somebody selling drugs at school," Pinelli said. "Where do you find kids? At school."

Molly Rockstroh said her son Ryan was buying heroin in the bathroom at Ashwaubenon high school. Court documents say Ryan bought the heroin that eventually killed him in the parking lot of the Bay Park Square mall. Poteat said busy parking lots are a common place for drug deals.

"If your neighbor is selling drugs you see a lot of short term traffic you start getting suspicious and you call the police and you report that," Poteat said. "In a large parking lot of a grocery store, department store or something like that or a mall, people come and go all the time. It really doesn't stand out."

Molly Rockstroh said while heroin ultimately killed her son Ryan, parents should focus on keeping their kids off more common drugs.

"I know that not every kid who experiments with marijuana or alcohol will become addicted to hard drugs," Molly Rockstroh said. "But I guarantee you that every kid that becomes addicted started with marijuana and alcohol."

Karen Falck said her son denied using drugs but she knew something wasn't right. She said parents should never rest until they find the answers they're looking for.

"I think if it doesn't feel right it probably isn't right and you just have to keep digging until you find some answers," Falck said. "Maybe you won't find drugs at all. Maybe they're just having some issues with a class or some kids of something like that. But you won't know anything until you just keep pushing and that's where I fell short."

Fellow teenagers were convicted of supplying drugs in the deaths of both Ryan Rockstroh and Corey McNeil. Matt Danen was recently released from jail after he pleaded no contest to supplying methadone to McNeil. Casey Gogos was found guilty of supplying heroin to Rockstroh. Gogos will be sentenced on November 9th.

If you would like to test your knowledge of drugs click here to take a drug quiz for parents.

For more information on drugs you can visit the following links:

National Institute on Drug Abuse

Parents: The anti-drug

Partnership for a Drug-Free America