PARENTS' ANTI-MARIJUANA MESSAGE ISN'T GETTING ACROSS

When it comes to marijuana, parents are not speaking their minds.

While 98 percent of American parents say they don't want their children to
smoke marijuana, only 40 percent have told them that, according to a
nationwide survey of parents released today by Minnesota's Hazelden
Foundation.

And only 20 percent specifically have told their children that marijuana is
illegal, the survey shows.

"It's a situation where parents believe they don't have a lot of influence
but the fact is they do," said Ariel White-Kovach, executive director of
Hazelden's Center for Youth and Families. "And they need to use that
influence to give a clear message not to use alcohol and drugs."

The survey comes just one week after a report showing that marijuana sends
more youngsters into treatment than any other drug. In fact, it's
responsible for almost as many as all other abuses and addictions --
including alcohol -- combined, according to the Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York.

Citing figures from the National Institutes of Health, the report says 48
percent of the 182,000 youngsters, 19 years and under, who entered
treatment in 1996 were admitted because of marijuana use.

Marijuana use is also up in Minnesota, according to the periodic Minnesota
Student Survey by the state's Department of Children, Families and
Learning. In 1998, 24 percent of Minnesota's ninth-grade students said they
had used marijuana within the past year, compared with 9.6 percent in 1992.
Among high school seniors, that statistic rose from 20 percent to 30 percent.

From Fun To Sobriety High

Medical professionals connect the increase to two changing attitudes among
teenagers: Fewer disapprove of marijuana use, and fewer believe it to be
harmful.

"Kids think it's an OK thing to do, that it doesn't do anything to you,"
said Scott Ballantyne, a junior at Sobriety High School in Edina. "It just
makes you really happy. It's fun, not what anybody considers a hard-core
drug."

Ballantyne entered Sobriety High, an alternative school for children in
recovery, in April. He had just finished treatment for a marijuana problem
at Hazelden.

Scott's mother said her family would fit the survey. They hadn't had a
serious talk about marijuana with Scott until his drug use started in about
eighth grade. They never thought they they'd have to.

"We were pretty naive about how much drug use there was in the schools,"
Linda Ballantyne said. "I mean, we would have discussions about drugs
occasionally when the subject would come up.

"But I don't remember ever consciously sitting down and having 'the talk'
about drugs. I do remember we had it for cigarettes. But I felt really
quite sure that it [drug use] wasn't going to happen to my children."

Parents should say: Don't

Studies, including the Minnesota student survey, show that parental opinion
is one of the key factors that discourage children from trying drugs and
alcohol.

In the Hazelden survey of 505 parents of teens, 86 percent of respondents
said they have talked to their teens about marijuana. Parents who have
smoked marijuana themselves are more likely than the nonusers to have that
talk -- 94 percent to 82 percent.

Overall, more than half of the parents -- 55 percent -- have told their
teens what punishment they could expect if they do smoke it.

But only 40 percent had specifically told their children: "Don't do it."

Hazelden said its survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5
percentage points.

The survey findings are consistent with others that show parental opinions
often don't get through, said Alyse Booth, a spokeswoman at the Columbia
University center on substance abuse, which will release its own survey of
1,000 parents and 2,000 teens on Aug. 31.

"[Our] preliminary findings also show . . . that more parents say they have
discussed the dangers of illegal drugs with their teens than teens say that
their parents have done so," Booth said.

White-Kovach said parents need to be clear about their disapproval of drugs
- -- and to listen to their children.

"It's really important not to give orders to a child and then walk away,"
she said. "Their children probably know more about the availability of
drugs in their schools than they do. They can tell their parents the
challenges they face every day."

But surely some youngsters won't be forthcoming.

"Parents need to know that drugs are available in high schools, middle
schools and elementary schools," White-Kovach said. "Parents may not know
the details. But if a parent says, 'I do not want you using alcohol and
drugs,' that should be understood."

H.J. Cummins can be reached at hcummins@startribune.com.

For information on this subject, including Hazelden's survey of parental
attitudes toward teen drinking, check out the Star Tribune's report on teen
drinking online at: http://www.startribune.com