BABY BOOMER PARENTS IN DENIAL ABOUT CHILDREN'S DRUG USE

Only 21% of parents polled say their youngsters might have tried
marijuana;44% of teens queried say they have.

WASHINGTON- When it comes to drugs and kids, the baby boom generation is in
denial. Famous for their own forays with mind-altering drugs as teenagers,
members of the now-graying population appear unable to believe their kids
are using drugs and unwilling to broach the touchy subject with them, a
survey to be released today suggests.

Only 21 percent of parents acknowledged the possibility that their teen
might have tried marijuana, although 44 percent of teens say they have used
the drug, according to a new survey from the Partnership for a Drug-Free
America.

Deborah Barr was one of those parents. She never mentioned drugs to her
daughter, Tish, a brown-eyed girl who sported a melting smile framed by
long, dark-brown wavy hair.

Barr didn't feel like there was a need. After all, Tish was never out late.
She graduated near the top of her class from an elite Virginia high school,
where she was president of the Future Business Leaders of America.

Barr was wrong. Tish never got her chance to be a business leader. Instead,
her future came to a heart-wrenching halt Jan. 12, 1995, when she fell into
a coma after accidentally overdosing on heroin. Her mother was forced to
pull the plug on her life-support system less than a year after Tish had
graduated from high school.

"I was one of those parents that was in total denial," Barr said. "Drugs
couldn't touch my squeaky-clean family. My daughter was perfect, pretty and
smart."

Barr now is a full-time soldier in the war against drugs, trying to help
parents talk to their children before they, too, become overwhelmed by the
world of drugs.

More than 30 percent of teens say their parents never have talked to them
about drugs, while only a fourth said their parents have discussed drug use
four or more times in the past year, the survey said.

This lack of communication is proving to be a major problem, since teens
who talk to their parents about drugs on a regular basis are about half as
likely to use them, the study said.

The survey is produced annually by the partnership. This year, 9,712
children, teens and parents anonymously completed questionnaires over
several months in 1997. Since 1993, the study has shown use of marijuana by
high school juniors and seniors rise from 29 percent to 48 percent.

"I think parents understand there is a drug problem in this country, but
when it's in their own living room, they have a real perception problem."
said Leigh Leventhal, spokeswoman for the partnership. "Parents have got to
start opening up these discussions with their kids, no matter how
uncomfortable it is for them."

Leventhal suspects that many baby boomers might be skirting the issue
because of discomfort about revealing their own youthful drug experiences.
But she says parents need to get past that. "That's what parenting is all
about; learning from our mistakes."

Children also are finding out about drugs much quicker than their parents
think, with 90 percent of 9-to 12year-olds aware of marijuana and 66
percent of fourth-graders saying they wish their parents would talk more
about drugs.

Other findings of the survey:

Seven out of 10 teens say they have friends who use drugs, but only 45
percent of parents think their kids have drug-using friends.

Forty-three percent of parents believe their teen easily could find
marijuana, while 58 percent of teens say the drug is easy to come by.

To counter these changing perceptions of drug use, the partnership along
with the Office of National Drug Control Policy is launching a $195
million-a-year anti-drug advertising campaign.

The campaign, which equals what Toyota spends on advertising in a year and
is scheduled to go nationwide in July, should expose teens ato four
anti-drug messages a week. About 40 percent of the commercials will be
aimed at parents.

"We certainly think that this will help," Leventhal said. "This survey is
really an attempt for us to understand what is going on so we can 'unsell'
drugs to kids."