KIDS LISTEN TO DRUG VIEWS

Red Ribbon Week Reinforces The Message Children Get To Stay Drug-Free

As a small gesture, kids in public and private schools will pin on red
ribbons or sport red trinkets next week.

The colors only signify a larger message: Substance abuse is a serious,
growing problem that affects everyone.

But drug education advocates only recently have begun to understand what
works and what doesn't. The solution is simple.

What works: Parents hammering the message and setting the example.

What doesn't work: Just saying "no."

Red Ribbon Week, which kicks off today with a march and rally for
schoolchildren, is designed to reinforce the message kids should get at
home and at school. Participants will gather and the state Capitol and head
toward Town Square downtown. Next week, schools will hold a variety of
anti-drug events to warn young people of the perils of substance abuse.

"Research studies have shown repeatedly that youth do respond to strong,
clear messages from parents and others they look up to when deciding not to
experiment with drugs," said Regina Walker, project coordinator for
Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization, SAYNO. "Believe it or not,
kids do listen to their parents on this issue. Yet the surveys also show
that parents and others do this only infrequently, if at all, leaving kids
vulnerable to confusing and mixed messages from media, music, peer pressure
and curiosity."

Recent surveys show how the lack of parental advice or guidance can result
in young people being tempted to experiment with drugs.

Columbia University's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse studied the
likelihood of drug experimentation of youngsters by the time they turn 15.
It found that 95 percent of teenagers have smoked their first cigarette; 93
percent have tried their first alcoholic drink and 86 percent have tried
marijuana.

Closer to home, the 2002 Alabama Student Survey of Risk and Protective
Factors revealed that 34 percent of the state's ninth-graders use
marijuana, 70 percent of 11th-graders use alcohol, and 13 percent of
seventh-graders used inhalants. This study was sponsored by the state
Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

"It's a mark of our culture. We live in a very fast-paced, highly
technological society. In the typical family, both spouses work and are
working longer hours," said Larry Winkler, executive director of SAYNO.
"They have less time to spend with kids. Kids are on the go more and
there's less quality time."

Winkler said young people are knowledgeable because they've been drenched
with the impression that drugs make you feel good. If they are warned of
the perils, they have the "bulletproof mentality" that addiction won't
happen to them.

The approach, he said, shouldn't be preachy but informative about the risks
as well as the effects on the body and the mind.

"Then they make a knowledgeable decision if they want to introduce a
substance to their system," Winkler said.