Lee Dresselhaus / L’Observateur / September 6, 2000

So’..it would seem that the more sophisticated the child, the moresophisticated the child’s toys.

Consider the difference between a child of these days and a child in the 1960’s. In the 1960’s, toys were simpler, a child’s play simpler. A stickcould serve as a gun, a box as a fort. Give a kid a bag of those green plasticsoldiers (especially if there was a tank included even if the barrel WAS bent) or a few dinosaurs and the day turned into something fun. Somethingthat didn’t require a whole lot of sophistication, just a little imagination.

Now, compare those kids with the kids of today. The kids of today areunquestionably more sophisticated than the kids of my generation. Theirtoys make the toys of that generation seem quaint. There are computergames played by 10-year-olds that can make an adult feel, well, stupid.

And the kid will trounce you soundly if you challenge him on his computerized turf. I recently played a computer game with my 11-year-old nephew, who casually, yet thoroughly, beat me as if I were mentally challenged. When these kids play with soldiers the soldiers are electronicand zap each other with appalling reality. The child becomes, through histoys, sophisticated in the ways of violence.

Television also lends itself to the premature sophistication of our kids.

There are words used on television today that would have caused my parents to expire on the spot and that sometimes even cause me, who is not known for over-sensitivity, to drop my jaw. There is sex everywhere,from the simplest sitcom to those sensuality-oozing ads for Victoria’s Secret lingerie. A kid in his or her early teens knows more about sex thesedays than you can ever imagine possible, and they learn it as we watch from the sidelines.

And there’s something else out there that the kids are more sophisticated about at an earlier age than we were. At least, most of us.Drugs.

Let me tell you, folks, they’re everywhere these days. And kids know moreabout them than you’d ever guess. According to a Associated Press reportfrom 1999, almost 10 percent of 18,000 eighth-graders polled in an anonymous survey admitted using inhalants. That would be sniffing thingslike paint, glue, liquid paper or white-out, etc. Over 7 percent admittedusing marijuana. And these are eighth-graders. The numbers went up asthe kids in higher grades were polled. LSD use among high school seniorsis at its highest point in at least seven years.

And now the new drug of choice for our overly-sophisticated kids seems to be Ecstasy. Ectsasy, or MDMA, is the designer drug of this generation.And it is pervasive in this society. It’s a stimulant with somepsychoactive ingredients that makes the user feel good about himself and warm and fuzzy towards others. And since it’s a stimulant, it can causeyou to clench your teeth a lot and to dance all night, which is why the techno-dance parties known as raves are so popular these days.

A rave is an all-night affair, complete with incredibly loud dance music – called techno-music, laser light shows, smoke and mist effects, and lots of kids tripping their brains out on Ectsasy and that blast from the past, LSD, among other things.

You can generally tell an Ectsasy user. They’re the ones with the baby’spacifier, or binky as it’s sometimes called, hung around their necks or stuck in their mouths. That’s to ease the jaw-clenching effect of the drugthat’s caused by the methamphetamine in its chemical construction.

They’ll also be drinking lots of water because they get real thirsty because they dance a lot and their body temperature rises. In fact, somerecent deaths have been caused by the overheating of the body of the user.

And the kicker is that you can find kids as young as 16 or maybe even younger in these parties because they don’t serve alcohol. That would beillegal, wouldn’t it? One kid who had been to raves told me that there is basically an uncontrolled smorgasbord of drugs available at them. How do you findwhat you want? Just ask. You’ll be pointed in the right direction bysomeone.

Of course, the promoters of the raves swear that the drugs are an unfortunate side effect of them and not a primary motivation for the kids to attend. That’s probably true, but when you put down bird seed don’t besurprised if it attracts birds. If you promote an environment that is a safehaven for drug use and sales, don’t be upset when people notice and start pointing fingers.

And for all you parents out there who think that their child would never do something like that, get this. All those kids at those raves are somebody’soverly-sophisticated child. Maybe even yours.Take a good look around. If you find a binky and your kid is over three, youmay need to have a talk. Don’t worry, you won’t be the first. Trust me.

LEE DRESSELHAUS writes this column every Wednesday in L’Observateur.

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