North Jersey Parents Get A Lesson In Teens' Drug-Hiding Habits

They'll hide them inside a tennis ball. They'll tear out pages in a book and make a secret compartment. A backpack has dozens of places a kid could keep them. Even clothes can be used to conceal them.

They're drugs. And kids are finding all kinds of ways to hide them from parents.

Police officers and others gave parents an overview on the latest drug trends and how a child's bedroom can contain hundreds of places to hide drugs at a special community forum Tuesday called Hidden In Plain Sight.

"There's always something new, so keeping up with the trends is important," said Becky Carlson, executive director of the Center for Prevention and Counseling, an organization dedicated to drug prevention, treatment and recovery.

Officials set up a mock bedroom on stage at Wayne Valley High School and had parents search for all the different places children could, and do, hide their drugs.

Kids will go as far to unscrew a switch cover and hide their stash in the wall or inside an empty deodorant container.

Vape pens, e-cigarettes and similar devices are becoming more popular among kids, police said.

Five Wayne Hills High School students were caught in the past three days with pocket-sized vaporizers containing nicotine.

Alcohol remains the drug of choice for teenagers.

In a recent survey, 33 percent of 12th-graders and 20 percent of 10th graders recently admitted to consuming alcohol, said Tina Aue, director of prevention and services.

Nearly 70 percent of adolescents who try alcohol before 15 are much more likely to try other drugs when they are older. Drinking alcohol can affect a child's frontal cortex and hippocampus.

Drinks like cotton candy- and caramel-flavored vodka, SpikedSeltzer and Mike's Hard Lemonade are becoming more popular among young drinkers.

Kids are also making their own mixed drinks using Red Bull and other energy drinks. Skittles and Gummy Bears also soak up vodka.

With its legalization in eight states, marijuana is more popular, and more potent, than ever. The levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, are often between 13 and 18 percent and as much as 80 percent or more in marijuana edibles.

School Resource Officer Mike Zaccone said that marijuana's legalization in eight states is "definitely not a good thing."

Kids may use coffee grinds and dryer sheets fitted over a cardboard toilet paper roll to mask the smell of marijuana. Also, 11 percent of teenagers who smoke marijuana say they started before they turned 13.

The increased use of prescription painkillers and drugs among teenagers, especially athletes, and adults, has lead to the increase of heroin use among teenagers and young adults.

Sixty percent of heroin addicts say they got addicted to opiates after being prescribed prescription drugs. It is often cheaper than alcohol and much easier to hide. A dose of heroin is often smaller than a bottle cap and can be hidden almost anywhere.

More than 2 percent of 12th-graders admitted to using heroin in a recent survey, Carlson said.

Mark DuBois, the school resource officer at Wayne Hills High School, and Zaccone said that parents need to be the ones who proactively speak to their kids about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. They need to be the ones who set the rules. Parents have every right to search their child's bedroom, they said.

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Photos: Parents look through a mock bedroom for drugs on stage at Wayne Valley High School during a special program sponsored by several anti-drug agencies and the Wayne Police Department.

Some of the drugs and paraphernalia parents may find in their child's bedroom. — Staff photos by Daniel Hubbard