DRUGS: A LONG WAY TO GO

Traditional family values are ridiculed by a lot of liberal activists but
not by many researchers. At least three notable studies, in fact, have been
released in the past month.

One, conducted by a University of North Carolina sociologist, compared the
attitudes of high school seniors who attend worship services regularly to
those who do not. It found that religious students are significantly more
likely than others to have positive self images, enjoy school and feel
optimistic about the future.

Perhaps parents should get their children to church at an early age, even
if they don't attend themselves.

Another study, by the Rand Corp., shows the more time teenagers are
unsupervised, the more likely they are to engage in sex and contract
venereal diseases. Of the study-group teens who were unsupervised for 30
hours a week, 80 percent were sexually active -- far more than those who
were alone less than five hours.

One solution, researchers suggested, might be for local governments to
provide after-school activities. An even-better remedy would be for parents
to spend more time with their children, beginning at an early age. Those
who have parental love are less likely to go looking elsewhere for a
physical substitute.

In the third study, a British cardiologist said extramarital sex was a
heath hazard.

"We found that 75 percent of the cases of sudden death during sexual
activity involved people were taking part in extramarital sexual
intercourse," he said. "Couples in long-term relationships in general
hardly faced any risk of heart failure."

Is it any wonder that as people grow a little older, and have more
experiences in life, they tend increasingly to embrace traditional values?

If the latest "triumph" is any indication, there is reason for a great deal
of concern about teenage drug abuse.

A University of Michigan study, measuring the habits of eighth, 10th and
12th graders, found drug and alcohol use declined in all three groups last
year. Even abuse of the so-called love drug Ecstasy, which increased 20
percent in 2001, dropped as young people learned more about the long-term
health risks.

Still, however, the study found nearly half of all sophomores and seniors
used at least one illegal drug during the past year -- as did one-fourth of
eighth graders. While marijuana and other milder drugs declined, cocaine
and heroin held steady.

Also, alcohol is a serious problem. Nearly one-third of the seniors, and a
surprising 7 percent of all eighth-graders, reported they had been drunk at
least once in the past 30 days.

Those numbers may be improvements, but clearly much more needs to be done.

A good start would be programs, in and out of school, to give young people
factual information about drugs. It shouldn't be a propaganda campaign, or
a "fit in the with crowd" message. They should simply be told the medical
dangers associated with each illicit drug.

Also, parents need to spend more time with their children. Young people
feel a need to "connect" with an adult, particularly parents. If they
cannot, they seek substitutes elsewhere.

Government can help in the war on drugs, but the major battles are fought
at home -- preferably with pre-emptive strikes of parental love and attention.