PARENT-CHILD TALK FOUND TO CURB DRUG USE

WASHINGTON -- Children who learn about the risks of drugs at home from
their parents are much less likely to fall prey to narcotics than
those who do not, according to a nationwide survey being released today.

"All this data really just screams at parents" to take an active role
in their children's activities, especially in light of the Littleton,
Colo., tragedy, said Steve Dnistrian, executive vice president of the
nonprofit Partnership for a Drug-Free America, which did the study.

"Kids who are learning nothing at home about drugs are using drugs at
far higher rates," he said. "We're asking parents to consider that
they don't know their teenagers as well as they think they do."

For instance, among teenagers who said they had learned nothing about
the risks of drugs from their parents, 45 percent reported using
marijuana in the past year. Usage dropped to 33 percent for those
teens who said they learned "a little" about the risks from their
parents, and to 26 percent for those who said they learned "a lot."

But getting the message across is not as easy as some parents think.
Whereas virtually all parents -- 98 percent -- reported speaking with
their kids at some point about drugs, just 68 percent of the children
remembered the conversation. Only 27 percent reported learning a lot
at home on the issue.

Those talks had better start early if parents want their children to
listen, researchers concluded. Although 74 percent of fourth-graders
said they want more guidance from their parents about drugs, that
figure dropped to just 19 percent by the eighth grade.

Consistent findings

The link between levels of usage and the amount of parental discussion
held true no matter what the ethnic group or the type of substance,
researchers found. Children using cocaine, LSD or inhalants were also
much less likely to have learned about the risks of drugs at home, the
survey found.

The $300,000 survey tabulated questionnaires from nearly 10,000
preteens, teenagers and parents nationwide, probing attitudes toward
drugs and their usage. The partnership has been doing an annual survey
since 1987, but this is the first time it has analyzed the connection
between talking about drugs at home and preventing usage later on.

Even drug-policy groups that have favored a liberalization of drug
laws applauded the survey's message.

Agreement on issue

"We disagree with the partnership on a lot of things," said Tyler
Green of the nonprofit Drug Policy Foundation in Washington. "But
anyone would have a hard time disagreeing that parents should talk to
their kids about drugs and drug education. . . . It's an important
message."

One bright spot in the survey findings was the rate of drug use.
Although usage increased throughout the 1990s, it appears to have
leveled off last year, even dipping slightly in some areas. Fewer
children reported that they had been offered drugs, and there was a
drop in the number of children who said they had tried marijuana, down
to 42 percent in 1998 from 44 percent the year before.