TALK TO YOUR KIDS IT REALLY DOES WORK

The loss of the anti-drug DARE program in Oconomowoc schools doesn't have to
be critical - if community groups and parents pick up the slack and do what
they should be doing, anyway: talking to kids about the dangers of drugs.

DARE by itself can only be a half-measure. While it has value, its message
needs to be reinforced at home. The problem, according to the Partnership
for a Drug-Free America, is that too many parents think there is no
problem - at least not at their houses - and that their kids don't listen to
them, anyway.

Great strides have been made in the war against drugs. The partnership
reports that since the mid-1980s, there are nearly 10 million fewer drug
users, and the percentage of drug users in the general population has gone
from 12% in 1985 to 6% in 1998. The reduction in cocaine use specifically
has been even more dramatic: The number of users has dropped two-thirds
since the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in 1985.

More good news is that a recent survey of teen attitudes showed 40% of
teenagers strongly agree that "really cool" teens don't use drugs.
Furthermore, over the past two years, after reaching peaks in the mid '90s,
use of inhalants, hallucinogens, marijuana and amphetamines has flattened.

But this is no time to relax. The numbers need to be driven down even
further; the damage drugs do is simply too great to ever ignore.

And every parent needs to be involved. To believe that this is just a big
city problem - a "Milwaukee problem" - is to believe in Santa Claus and the
tooth fairy. Drug use cuts across all racial lines, socioeconomic lines,
geographic lines. It is as prevalent in the suburbs as in the inner city. It
truly knows no boundaries.

Many parents don't believe that. The partnership reports that, nationally,
54% of teens say they have been offered drugs while only 37% of parents
believe that's happened to their kids; 41% of teens say they have tried
marijuana while 18% of parents believe their kids have tried the drug; teens
place drugs at the top of their list of concerns; parents place it second.

And here's a key statistic: Only 30% of teens say they learn about the risk
of drugs from their parents, while one-third of parents think that what they
say will have little influence on their children's decisions about drugs.

But the experts tell us that what parents have to say does matter and that
parents talking to kids is one of the key reasons for the decline in drug
use and the rise of a more negative attitude toward drugs among kids.

Educating children about drugs works. Some of that certainly needs to be
done at school. But, as with many other things, the most important lessons
are learned at home.