STUDY: DADS KEY TO SOLVING DRUG USE

WASHINGTON -- OK dads, listen up. The key to winning the war on drugs rests
not with police or laws, but with you.

A national survey released Monday shows that dads who eat dinner with their
children, take them to religious services and help them with their homework
greatly reduce the chances their kids will smoke, drink or use illegal drugs.

"We need a return of the family dinner in America," said Joseph Califano
Jr., president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at
Columbia University, which conducted the study.

The trouble is that most kids don't think they can turn to their dads for
advice about drugs. Nearly 60 percent of the teens surveyed said their
mothers are easier to talk to about drugs. Only 26 percent said the same
about their dads.

One Wichita, Kan., youngster, 17-year-old Ashley Cook, reinforced the last
statistic when she described in an interview Monday how it was much easier
to turn to her mother for advice about alcohol. There were also times two
years ago when Ashley got drunk at parties and called her mom for a ride home.

"Obviously she didn't approve, but she would never say I was a bad person,"
said Ashley, now a senior at East High School. "She would listen and give
advice."

Ashley's parents divorced last year, just after she stopped drinking.
Although she sees her dad twice a week and says they have a good
relationship, she feels more comfortable talking to her mother about alcohol
and other problems.

With her mom's help, she said, she realized she had a self-esteem problem
and that she didn't need to drink alcohol to have fun at parties.

Conversations like Ashley's need to take place with both parents in
virtually every American family to overcome the nation's drug problem, said
Califano, who was secretary of health, education and welfare in the Carter
administration.

"This problem is going to be solved across the kitchen table, in the living
room, in the church, in the classroom. And when we begin to appreciate that
in this country, we will make a lot more progress on this problem," he said.

The latest statistics on teenage drug use, gathered in the survey, show how
far parents have to go:

About 14 million youngsters 12 to 17 are at moderate or high risk of using
illegal substances, based on their habits and relationships.

Children in two-parent homes who don't get along with their fathers are 68
percent more likely to try illegal drugs than teens in supportive two-parent
homes.

Kids raised by single mothers are at 30 percent higher risk than in
supportive two-parent homes.

The phone survey last April of 2,000 boys and girls and 1,000 parents found
some bright spots, said Califano: Nearly 45 percent of teens who have never
smoked marijuana said they credited their parents with that decision. And 60
percent of teens said they don't expect to use drugs in the future, compared
with 51 percent in 1998.

About 13.6 million Americans use illicit drugs, according to a federal study
released this month. Marijuana continues to be the most popular.

That study, released by the Department of Health and Human Services,
concluded that drug use by older teens and young adults rose about 10
percent from 1997 to 1998. But among younger teens, use fell 15 percent in
the same period.

To continue that downward trend, teens need support to foster a sense of
self-worth and belonging, experts say. And that help doesn't always have to
come from mom or dad, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse
suggests.

"As long as they have that love and support from an adult important to them,
that's what counts," said Mary Campuzano, a vice president at the Kansas
Health Foundation.

For the teen portion of the anonymous survey by the National Center on
Addiction and Substance Abuse, the margin of error was plus or minus 2.2
percentage points, and for the parents, plus or minus 3.1.