Is it an allergy or is it a cold?

Drug Czar Says `Latchkey Kids' Risk Drug Use (4/28)

By JACK WARNER
c.1997 Cox News Service

ATLANTA Barry McCaffrey, director of the office of National Drug
Control Policy, told volunteers and executives of the National Boys &
Girls Clubs of America on Thursday that children most often get
involved with drugs when ``there's nobody home from 3 until 7.''

``The problem isn't the schools,'' he said. ``It's the problem of
nobody from 3 to 7 that's when all the trouble starts.''

McCaffrey told about 800 people at the opening day of the clubs'
convention that organizations such as theirs must carry a major
responsibility for educating these latchkey children to avoid drugs.

While drug addiction among adult Americans has been cut in half since
the 1970s, McCaffrey said drug abuse among children since 1992 has
gotten worse every year.

``One out of 5 high school seniors is using drugs regularly
primarily marijuana,'' he said. ``We better watch out, or in five to
10 years this bubble of youngsters will produce an unprecedented wave
of violence.

``We have to educate American youngsters to reject illegal drugs,
tobacco and alcohol,'' McCaffrey said. ``If you can get them through
age 21 without taking part in any of those activities, then you're
home free.''