PARENTS TALK MORE TO CHILDREN ABOUT DRUGS, SURVEY REPORTS

More parents now say they are talking with their
children about illegal drugs than in previous years, but they also
harbor doubts about whether their warnings do much good, according to
a nationwide survey of attitudes released today on the Internet. The
survey of 800 parents across the country was sponsored by the
Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a coalition of advertising and
public relations specialists who work to make adolescents and children
more aware of the risks of using drugs.

The full survey is available on the Net at www.drugfreeamerica.org.

The annual survey found that 57 percent of the parents sampled in 1999
said they spoke with their children about drugs at least four times in
the past year, compared with 44 percent in 1988.

And 64 percent of the parents who raised the issue in 1999 felt that
they did so "thoroughly," compared with 52 percent in 1998. More of
them said they had explained how drug use can affect a child's mind,
education and life.

A multi-million dollar government media campaign to discourage
youthful drug use has urged parents to help by discussing drugs with
their children. And recent surveys, like the Monitoring The Future
study released last December at the University of Michigan, report
that adolescent drug use, after rising sharply since 1992, has leveled
off, and even begun to decline among some younger age groups.

But the survey released by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America
also reported that many parents felt overwhelmed by the drug problem
and lacked confidence in their ability to dissuade their children from
experimenting with drugs, especially marijuana.

Thirty percent of the parents sampled last year said they believed
there was "nothing I can really do to help the drug problem," a sharp
increase from the 23 percent who agreed in 1998.

Three-fourths of the parents agreed that "most people will try
marijuana sometimes," compared with 65 percent in 1995, the last year
that the question was asked.

And one-third of the parents said that marijuana would be "very easy"
for their children to get, compared with 24 percent in 1995.

Nearly one-third of parents sampled last year said they believed that
"what I say will have little influence on whether my child tries
marijuana." Forty percent of black parents and 43 percent of Hispanic
parents sampled said they would have little influence on the matter.

The survey, conducted for the partnership by Audits & Surveys
Worldwide Inc., has a margin of error of 4.6 percent.

But Richard D. Bonnette, president of the partnership, said that when
teenagers are asked what risks they associate with drugs,
"disappointing their parents" ranks at the top year after year.

He said that children who learned a lot at home about the risks of
drugs were up to 50 percent less likely to try drugs, according to
data collected by the partnership.

"While parents may be overwhelmed by the enormity of the drug
problem," Mr. Bonnette said, "we've got to help them understand that
the fight against drugs isn't one massive battle -- it's thousands of
little ones."