"It's not a shock to those of us in high school," Brittany Shepard, a student from Drury High School said. "It's not just drugs and alcohol anymore, but prescription drugs are being abused by more and more students."

Several members of the coalition's teen program, UNITY, were on hand to lead a discussion about teen substance abuse -- causes, prevention and types.

"There are kids in high school using heroin, which used to be unheard of," he said. "They get started by using someone else's oxycontin or vicodin, not realizing that they can become dependent on these drugs in a week. They don't realize what harm they're doing to their brains."

Ben Shiner, a junior from Mount Greylock Regional High School, questioned if the adults in the room could identify if someone had been abusing drugs.

"I think I could tell," Al Bashevkin, coalition executive director, said. "I think they'd act out of the mind, wouldn't walk straight, be hypermanic, be depressed -- just acting irrational. I think it would be visible."

"I think you just described every normal teenager," Sarah Kline, of Big Brothers/Big Sisters, said. "I think it's hard to tell."

Stephanie Mayer, of the Violence Prevention Center, said that drug use usually depends on the individual being able to control the telltale signs.

"Their lives become dependent on lies to avoid detection and appear normal," she said.

As the discussion turned to possible causes for substance abuse increasing among teenagers, ma-ny of the adults in the room questioned the validity of the age-old excuse "there's nothing to do around here."

"It's an excuse used around the country," Timothy Zelazo, of Florida, said. "I think teens use the excuse of having nothing to do to justify using drugs sometimes."

Elizabeth Shiner of Williams-town said that societal changes in attitude also are part of the problem.

"When a teen complains about a headache, a mother hands her a codeine pill. What happened to Tylenol?" she questioned. "A lot of parents think that it's OK to let kids drink at their house if the take away the keys. They're not thinking of the bigger picture -- other things are happening at these parties. As a parent I call other parents to find out if it's going to be a safe party. No one's going to serve my child alcohol. I think a lot of parents don't have these difficult conversations because they don't want to offend other parents."

As ideas about increasing communication and offering more prevention programs were discussed, District Attorney David Capeless sat silently listening to the conversations.

"I think a lot of what I heard today about perceptions scared me," he said at the conclusion of the meeting. "Perceptions, if wrong, can be dangerous. I want to make it clear that if a prescription drug isn't prescribed for you, it's not medicine -- it's a controlled substance. Unfortunately, studies have shown that if you offer a teenager a pill, they will most likely take it. These same teens would recoil if you offered them crack or heroin. Ironically, not only are most of these prescription drugs as addictive, but they're synthetic versions of street drugs."

He added, "It's also dangerous to make distinctions between recreational use and substance abuse. These are just stages, and who draws the line between the difference?"

Capeless said the main thing that needs to be changed is society's tolerance of illegal drug use.

"It's very wrong for parents to host parties where alcohol is consumed by teenagers," he said. "It's unhealthy and unsafe, as well as illegal. If we find out about a party, we can charge the parents, who could lose everything. You don't just get in trouble in a car when you use alcohol or drugs -- you can get in just as much trouble on a couch."