Drugs in our community

These articles were sent to me by Scott Tracy, liason from the LCUSD School Board to the Community Prevention Council:

Video store pot bust
Police say owner of La Crescenta shop was selling drugs, individual cigarettes.

By Christopher Cadelago

Published: Last Updated Sunday, November 15, 2009 8:28 PM PST

LA CRESCENTA — Glendale police on Friday arrested the owner of a video store they say used his business as a front to provide marijuana and untaxed cigarettes to customers, authorities said.

Hrazda Avanessians, 47, was booked on possession of marijuana for sale after officers served a search warrant to Video Pacific at 4050 La Crescenta Ave., Glendale Police Sgt. Scott Johnstone said.

Avanessians on Sunday denied the charges and said the marijuana was for personal use.

Officers from the vice and narcotics squad searched the video store about 9:30 p.m. Friday and recovered several small baggies of marijuana and cartons of cigarettes without state tax seals, Johnstone said.

“They have hundreds and hundreds of videos back there, and a lot of those video boxes were empty,” he said. “Officers went through the whole store, and in the empty video boxes they found marijuana individually marketed to sell.”

Police also cited Andre Balasanyan, 30, for possession of marijuana and plan to request charges against Avanessians for the untaxed cigarettes. The store is not licensed to sell tobacco in the city, Johnstone said.

The proliferation of drugs in foothill communities has focused further scrutiny on the video-rental facility located in a small strip mall at La Crescenta and Montrose avenues, Det. Christian Hauptmann said.

Officers set up surveillance after receiving tips that the video store provided tobacco and narcotics, including to minors. Complaints from neighbors and parents ranged from suspicions that the store provided heroin, marijuana and individual cigarettes, all of which are illegal. Police saw a young woman buying six individual cigarettes for $.30 each.

“It became a known thing that you could go there and buy cigarettes for a cheap price,” Hauptmann said. “It’s the kind of thing that could draw teens in. They go in there and they just need a buck, and they can get cigarettes for the night.”

Officers found packs of cigarettes stashed in empty video cases and several cigarette cartons in the store and in a car parked outside, Johnstone said.

“We have such a good quality of life,” he said. “And now you have a video store, a store that people bring their families to, and it’s selling marijuana like candy, more or less.”

Avanessians maintained that he regularly turned away minors without identification and never kept or sold hard drugs on the premises. But he admitted to keeping a personal supply of marijuana in cassette boxes to mask the scent, and to selling single cigarettes.

“I always ask for ID,” Avanessians said. “When I can see that they’re smoking something I tell them to get out. I don’t want them here.”

The arrest follows a number of recent incidents at local schools involving Ecstasy, LSD and methamphetamine, and as marijuana and alcohol continue to enjoy popularity among teens, police said. That combined with a rash of heroin use has put the community on high alert.

Parents last month turned out for a panel representing Glendale police, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, businesses, educators and community leaders urging them to get active in their children’s lives.

Officers stressed the importance of eliminating popular drug outposts, particularly those that cater to teens.

“I think this makes an impact because you’ve got to figure, how many kids are going to this place?” Hauptmann said. “They aren’t going to have a supplier for marijuana or illegal tobacco. It takes one of them out of the game.”

Meanwhile, patrol officers and leaders of the newly instituted north Glendale command continue to focus their efforts on assessing and clamping down on drug sales.

“We said, ‘This is a problem. It’s a horrible situation that needs further attention,’” said Lt. Ian Grimes, who oversees the north Glendale command. “That’s not to say that efforts weren’t there before. But we decided that this was a problem that really needed to be looked at.”

He said parents have formed support groups, a high school prevention council has come together, and his team meets biweekly with Los Angeles police and Los Angeles County sheriffs.

Early assessments trace the epicenter of the heroin problem to a group of 16 teenagers and young men, Grimes said, and has since swelled to include about 50 people.

But even as officers pinpoint areas and arrest offenders, many return to the foothills after short stints behind bars.

“For that 16 to have already touched 50 — the numbers can get big rapidly,” he said. “It’s going to take a constant effort.

Rallying to rid area of drugs

Police urge La Crescenta parents to join the fight to stop drug use among teens.

By Veronica Rocha

Published: Last Updated Tuesday, November 17, 2009 11:32 AM PST

GLENDALE — Police officials called on the community Monday night to help eradicate drugs in La Crescenta.

Getting teens to stop buying and using drugs in La Crescenta is a community issue, which requires attention from parents and Glendale residents, Lt. Ian Grimes said Monday at the Glendale Police Advisory Council meeting at City Hall.

“Police are just one part of the solution,” he said.

Parents can get involved in the Crescenta Valley Drug and Prevention Council, and parent support groups ,or get information on how to help their kids at school and the police department, he said.

More details on how to determine whether a teen is using drugs must be available to parents, advisory council member Sam Manoukian said.

“Because without them I think this is an uphill battle no matter how many police officers you stick up at [Crescenta Valley High School],” he said.

Advisory council member Rick Barnes said many teens with drug problems have gone to juvenile camps and been released to their parents, who don’t how to help their children get back on the right track.

The update on drug use comes three days after detectives arrested 47-year-old Hrazda Avanessians after he was allegedly selling marijuana to customers out of his La Crescenta video store, police said.

Neighbors and parents complained to police after suspecting the store was selling heroin, marijuana and untaxed cigarettes, police said.

Drug use in the Crescenta Valley has been a growing concern among police and parents.

“This is a community social problem, fundamentally,” Capt. Kirk Palmer said.

Community members held a forum Oct. 27 at Verdugo Hills Hospital to discuss drug and alcohol use among teens and to urge parents to get involved in their children’s lives. The forum was attended by about 70 parents, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Glendale police, educators, businesspeople and community leaders.

Recent police reports indicate some teens were committing burglaries to support their heroin habits.

Police have arrested drug dealers who were selling heroin to teens in La Crescenta, Grimes said.

But those teens have found other ways to get drugs.

Some of them take a bus to downtown Los Angeles and buy heroin from dealers there, he said. Other teens pay people to drive them to heroin suppliers.

“They are buying enough for themselves and a little extra so they can sell extra to support their own habits,” Grimes said.

More than a week ago, he said a young man who wanted heroin asked a few men to drive him to downtown Los Angeles for $50. But they reportedly drove him behind an alley and tried to steal his money.

Witnesses reported the attack to police, and the men were arrested, Grimes said.

“These guys tried to do a robbery without a gun or without a knife, but the next time, he does a robbery with a knife or gun, and then we end up with something much more serious,” he said.

MAILBAG: Hard-drug use is worse than ever

Published: Last Updated Monday, October 12, 2009 10:12 PM PDT

A recent article (“How to say no to drugs,” Sept. 24) focuses on the proliferation of the possession of hard drugs such as ecstasy, heroin and LSD by students in Glendale, and primarily in La Crescenta. It draws attention to the lack of fear students feel when being confronted with such dangerous substances.

In September, a Rosemont Middle School student was arrested for the ownership of ecstasy, and a Crescenta Valley High School student was caught with two tablets of LSD. Such fearlessness toward experiencing hazardous drugs has never before been apparent in any other generation. The fear and knowledge preventing students from wanting to experiment with these drugs should be returned and enforced by drug classes in schools. School officials and law enforcement should work together to eliminate any such possibility of these illegal substances being brought onto campus.

In previous years, the main problem drugs were tobacco and marijuana. These days, students are going a step further in the world of drug experience. Rather than affecting one’s lungs or heart, hard drugs such as LSD and ecstasy pinpoint regions in the user’s brain and gradually disintegrate those vital connections. Lately, detailed research of present and previous ecstasy and heroin users demonstrates severe memory loss and progressing brain damage.

Users in elementary and middle school are particularly at risk, given that their brains aren’t nearly as developed as they should be to contain the damage and handle the effects of these substances. Banning and preventing possession of these drugs should be one of the main focuses and priorities of school laws and organizations. Frequent and unannounced drug dog and police searches should be made a norm at schools in our area.

It is extremely vital to educate students on how risky it is to even try these high-level drugs, and to minimize greatly the exposure to these substances.

ANI ARSHAKYAN

Glendale

MAILBAG: Students unfazed by drug-use danger

Published: Last Updated Sunday, October 11, 2009 10:12 PM PDT

As a relatively new graduate from the Glendale Unified School District, I don’t think the schools are doing enough to help teens who are falling to drug use. It seems as though the ones struggling from the drug problems are always the ones left behind.

I remember attending these assemblies for all four years of my high school career and not one presentation that the school gave ever scared any one of us to refrain from drugs or alcohol. It was always the same people on the stage talking about the same stories they said last year.

Young adults aren’t afraid to try anything new. Trying to instill fear in their minds to stop them from doing drugs is not the answer because clearly it doesn’t work. It’s not an embarrassing thing to stay in jail one night anymore for drug possession; instead kids use it as a bragging right. Schools should take more responsibility for their students. They should push the teachers and faculty to have more of a relationship with their students and to encourage them to stay on the right path.

Maybe have a meeting with their parents every three to four months. Or better yet, have a lunch meeting with their students every so often, just to see what their students may be experiencing. Maybe there is a story a teacher can share with a student to stop the student from thinking twice about drugs or alcohol.

One on one time is much more important to students then assemblies; it gives students a sense of belonging. After all, the students who attend the assemblies are the “good” students who actually attend their classes.

We don’t go to school just to learn a little bit of science, math and history, we go to learn how to live within our society and learn life long lessons. And to me, I think saying no to drugs and alcohol will be one priceless lesson to be taught.

LINA SARKISSIAN

Burbank

MAILBAG:

Published: Last Updated Friday, October 9, 2009 10:54 PM PDT

Schools do good job fighting drug use

I would like to commend the enforcement efforts by local school principals and officials to keep students away from drugs.

It is very beneficial to the community that the public schools do all that they can do to keep the school campuses drug-free.

By trying to keep drugs out of our schools, campuses will also profit in respect to eliminating violence and other negative impacts that come as a result of drug use.

PAUL KARMIRYAN

Glendale

MAILBAG

Published: Last Updated Wednesday, October 7, 2009 7:21 PM PDT

Drugs nothing new to school campuses

Regarding the Sept. 24 article in your paper titled “How to say no to drugs,” which stated that “hard drugs” like Ecstasy and heroin were proliferating at La Crescenta campuses “for the first time.”

As a first year Glendale Community College student, I disagree.

Drugs and narcotics have been around for a long time in both middle school and high school campuses.

The issue is parents and educators being too naive about it.

I feel that parents, especially, are extremely naive about their children and what they do in regards to drugs.

I am not saying that every student is associated with alcohol or drugs, but I can assure you that each and every student can notify a person they know in the student body who has been affiliated with it.

That is why I encourage parents, who may have any suspicion, even the smallest, to test their children frequently. Urine testing is not effective because adolescents who are using drugs will immediately use a detox drink to cover up their activity during their testing.

Instead, parents should use hair samples. It is the most effective and efficient way of ensuring accurate results.

It is better to solve the problem now, than to have it progress and force anyone to regret it for the rest of their lives.

MICHELLE SHAHNAZARIANS

Glendale

MAILBAG

Published: Last Updated Tuesday, October 6, 2009 7:11 PM PDT

Parents must wake up to drug dangers

As a local, drug-free, 2007 high school graduate I feel that if the drug problems on school campuses aren’t taken extremely seriously, not only at school but at home, these “fearless” students will only take this newfound experimentation further (“How to say no to drugs,” Sept. 24).

Parents cannot have the “not my child” mentality. This is not an issue of curfew, teenage romance or alcohol — our youth, our children, our students are being put face to face with heavy narcotics in what we believe to be a safe community.

KATHRYN JENSEN

La Cañada