jhancock@journalnet.com

POCATELLO - The destructive nature of alcohol, drugs and violence among Idaho's adolescents was the topic of a statewide course taught Saturday in Pocatello by two local men.

Howard Manwaring, a retired detective from the Bannock County Sheriff's Office; and John Raukar, a retired coordinator for the Idaho Department of Education's Safe and Drug Free Schools program for District 25, created the course's curriculum that included real examples from their combined professional experiences.

About 20 people attended the eight-hour class - Drugs, Alcohol and Violence in Idaho - filling the media center at the Alameda Center in Pocatello. Those in attendance included members of the educational and law enforcement professions, among others.

Roughly six hours into the program, Manwaring and Raukar were telling participants about the lure the criminal life can have on adolescents and some of the risk factors for involvement.

"We need to look at ways of handling this stuff or - well, I think its already gotten out of hand - but it's going to get worse," Raukar said.

Drugs that many kids are focusing on today are prescription in nature because of the ease of access, the two men explained. Besides being able to pilfer some pills from friends or family members who have been legitimately prescribed the medications, adolescents are finding it easy to get many prescription drugs through the Internet.

"Oxycontin is going for $1 per milligram in the schools today," Raukar said.

Getting the drug through an Internet source, which has little oversight, has become notoriously easy, Manwaring said, and the profit margin is high, even at the cost to purchase Oxycontin.

Manwaring shared an experience from his time as a detective, telling the story of a teenage boy who was netting about $6,000 a month selling marijuana. He said he pulled the boy, who was driving a new Lexus, over and asked him whose car it was.

"He said it's mine and I asked him whose name it's registered in. He said 'it's registered in my name,'" Manwaring said.

The former detective said he asked the teen how he could own such an expensive car at his age and with no job. The teen readily admitted it was because he sold drugs.

"He let me search his car, but do you think I found so much as a marijuana seed in that car?" Manwaring asked. "No."

He said the police are up against a difficult task of trying to convince someone with few skills that they should give up the money of selling drugs for minimum-wage jobs working in fast food.

"Is it worth the risk for him to be able to drive that Lexus and take that risk at his age?" Manwaring asked. "Sure it is."

Some of the risk factors that the men said could potentially put a youth on the path to criminal behavior include the code of silence, denial, choice of friends, obsessions, family gang or drug ties, family problems, a family member who is incarcerated or on probation, drug and alcohol use, and financial problems.