DRUG TALKS CUT TEEN USE, SURVEY SAYS

NEW YORK -- Surprise, mom and dad: When it comes to frank talk on drug
use, your kids are listening.

A study released Sunday by the Partnership for a Drug Free America
found that teens who received strong anti-drug messages at home were
42 percent less likely to use drugs than teens whose parents ignored
the issue.

"With parents, we can cut drug use dramatically. Without them, we
cannot," said James E. Burke, chairman of the partnership.

A word of caution for parents: a single conversation probably won't
get the job done. Although 98 percent of parents said they had spoken
with their children about drugs, only 27 percent of teens said they
learned a lot about drug risks at home, the survey found.

"What's truly complicated about this is that parents really believe
they're doing their job in this area, but the data suggest otherwise,"
Burke said.

According to the study, there were significant differences in
experimentation between teens who spoke regularly with their parents
about drug use and those who did not.

Among teens who learned a lot at home, 26 percent said they had used
marijuana. Among those who said they learned nothing at home, 45
percent said they had used marijuana.

For inhalants, the first group reported 14 percent, the latter group
28 percent. For LSD, the figures were 7 percent and 20 percent; for
cocaine, 7 percent and 16 percent.

One reason parents aren't speaking with children about drugs: they
underestimate the availability. Only 37 percent of parents surveyed
believed their teens had ever been offered marijuana. But 53 percent
of the teens said they had been offered pot.

One other finding of the survey: It's best for parents to reach their
children at an early age. Among fourth-graders, 74 percent said they
wanted more details from their parents about drugs. Among
eighth-graders, the figure fell to 19 percent.

The partnership is a private, nonprofit coalition of communications
industry professionals, known for its anti-drug advertising campaign.
This is its 11th annual poll.

The survey was conducted in 1998 among 2,258 preteens, 6,852 teens and
809 parents.

The margin of error for the preteens' data was plus or minus 2.8
percentage points; the teens', plus or minus 1.8; the adults', plus or
minus 3.9.