GET OUT MORE WARNINGS ABOUT DRUGS, ALCOHOL

Amid all the maize and blue and green and white and Halloween costumes and
pumpkin paraphernalia on display this week, you may spot the occasional red
ribbon. That's because in addition to Big Game Week and trick-or-treat week,
this is National Red Ribbon Week, highlighting efforts to stop drug use
among young people.

Surveys show that 53 percent of American teenagers will at least have tried
an illegal drug by the time they graduate from high school. More than three
quarters will have used alcohol, 48 percent will indulge in marijuana, and
12 percent will try some kind of inhalant.

According to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America -- the folks who
produce the attention-getting anti-drug TV spots -- the most effective
deterrent for young people who might experiment with drugs is an
understanding of the risk involved. And most teens, research shows, report
that they get that message from informational programs at school. They may
shrug or snicker during the video, peer pressure being what it is, but some
of the warnings evidently are getting through.

School programs do not, however, absolve parents from setting an example or
from having those uncomfortable conversations about the very real dangers of
drug use. Different kids may react to different warnings -- the impact of a
criminal record, the effect on physical health, the consequences of
decisions made under the influence -- but parents ought to go over them all.
Even in the most upstanding communities, adults have to assume that
teenagers who are interested in drugs will find a way to get them, as they
have for generations.

And so they need to be warned, at every opportunity, of everything else they
are getting into.