START DRUG EDUCATION EARLY, KNOW THE RISKS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO ADDICTION

No guarantees exist to prevent any specific person from abusing drugs, but
parents, schools and communities can take practical steps to reduce the
``risk factors'' and increase the ``protective factors.''

First, it's necessary to be blunt about when children start to use drugs,
and about the progression from one substance to another, to another. The
average age at which children begin using drugs is 12 or 13, which means
seventh and eighthgraders, or earlier.

It's a serious mistake for parents to think drug abuse starts later, in
high school. By then, a young person may have moved beyond occasional
experimentation and into regular, serious abuse.

The progression question leads into the touchy issue of gateway drugs. What
is the relationship between the use of one drug and another?

The answer is stated carefully and clearly, without hyperbole or scare
tactics, by the National Institute on Drug Abuse: ``The sequence from
tobacco and alcohol use to marijuana use, and then, as children get older,
to other drugs, has been found in almost all longterm studies of drug use.''

NIDA cautions it can't be said that smoking and drinking at a young age are
the cause of later drug use. Nor does the sequence imply that the
progression is inevitable.

Yet this research conclusion must be stated firmly: For someone who has
ever smoked cigarettes or consumed alcohol, the risk of moving on to
marijuana is 65 times higher than it is for a person who never smoked or
drank.

The transition to cocaine is similar, but more so: The risk of slipping
downward into cocaine use is 104 times higher for someone who has smoked
marijuana at least once than for a person who never did.

To a parent, then, smoking or drinking by a child should be considered not
only bad in itself, but a warning signal of possibly more trouble ahead. A
parent who delays getting involved with the child may wait too long, with
dire consequences.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse also is precise and careful, but firm,
in its language about risk factors and protective factors. A risk factor is
``associated with greater potential'' for drug use. A protective factor is
``associated with reduced potential'' for drug use.

No risk factor listed by NIDA should be a surprise, but the appalling
ignorance of many parents the affluent as well as the poor about
child rearing means this information is needed badly. Among risk factors
within the family:

1. Chaotic home environments, particularly in which parents abuse
substances or suffer from mental illnesses.

2. Ineffective parenting, especially for children with difficult
temperaments and conduct disorders.

3. Lack of mutual attachments and nurturing.

Among risk factors outside the family, in which children interact with
school, friends and the community:

1. Inappropriate shy and aggressive behavior in the classroom.

2. Failure in school.

3. Poor social coping skills.

4. Affiliations with deviant peers or peers around deviant behaviors. (More
direct language, not that of NIDA, would say this: Hanging out with kids
who smoke, drink, do drugs and otherwise get into trouble.)

5. Perceptions by children that drug use is approved in the school, among
friends and in the community.

Parents who recognize their own home, school and community in the above
lists shouldn't wait for someone else to intervene. That's the parents'
responsibility.

Copyright © 1997, SunSentinel Company and South Florida Interactive, Inc.