OLD HIPPIES OUT OF TOUCH ON CHILDREN'S DRUG USE

Baby boomers who frittered away the Sixties in a haze of marijuana smoke
cannot get to grips with their own children taking drugs.

Just like their parents a generation before, yesterday's hippies seem to
have forgotten what it was like to be young, according to a new study by
the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

Even though youngsters are experimenting with drugs at an earlier age,
parents are burying their heads in the sand and convincing themselves that
their own children are not following in their footsteps.

"Boomers, many of whom have 'been there, done that', are suprisingly and
ironically out of step with the reality of drugs in their children's
lives," said Partnership president, Richard Bonnette. "Few sincerely
believe their children are exposed to drugs, that drugs are widely
available in the schools their children attend."

The poll, involving 9,000 youngsters, showed that parents were seriously
underestimating the availability of marijuana, their children's views of
the risks of drug-taking and whether their children's friends were smoking.

While 60 per cent of the baby boomers questioned admitted taking drugs in
their youth, they seem to be adopting a "do as I say, not as I did"
approach for their own offspring.

US schools have adopted a tough "say no" approach, lecturing children on
the dangers of drink, drugs and cigarettes. But the message does not seem
to be getting across when it comes to marijuana.

The study found that the number of children between nine and 12 who had
tried dope had gone up from 334,000 in 1993 to 571,000 last year.

Marijuana use among 13- to 16-year-olds remained stable, but 17- to
18-year-olds were using it more and more. almost half smoked regularly,
compared to 41 per cent in 1996.

But baby-boomers - named after the post-Second World War boom days when
teenagers had supposedly never had it so good - had a completely different
perspective when it came to their own children. Just 21 per cent of parents
thought their teenager had experimented with marijuana, while in reality 44
per cent of the teens said they actually had.