STRONG PARENTING IS BEST STRATEGY FOR RAISING DRUG-FREE KIDS

As a package of stories in today's edition makes disturbingly clear, drug
and alcohol abuse is an all too common aspect of many teenagers' lives.

While teen drinking and drug use appear to have declined from the height of
the drug culture in the 1960s and 1970s, the portrait that emerges from
teens is certainly not one to cheer the average parent's heart - with
marijuana particularly, but also drugs like cocaine and Ecstasy, readily
available.

Society has been trying to solve the teen drug problem for years with
relatively little to show for its efforts. Even at the height of the War on
Drugs in 1992, 32 percent of high school seniors reported having used
marijuana, nearly 10 percent had used hallucinogens, and cocaine use
including crack cocaine was in the double digits.

The chief idea adults have had about discouraging juvenile drug use has
been to saturate the airwaves and the classrooms with tons of anti-drug
propaganda. But teens being teens, most of these initiatives, including the
old and, increasingly discredited DARE program, have been the secret target
of ridicule by youth for years.

Many teens see these efforts as little more than heavy-handed admonitions
from hypocritical baby boomers - and there's more than a little truth in
that view.

The additional problem with anti-drug messages and programs is that they
haven't gotten to the root of why teens take drugs. Like their older,
drug-taking counterparts, the answer lies in the moral or spiritual sphere.

Some teens turn to drugs out of boredom, to be sure, and others out of a
sense of insecurity. But most turn to drugs as an escape from lives that
seem empty. Behind much of teenage drug use is an unhappy, empty heart that
needs filling. Beyond the sheer novelty of experimentation with the
forbidden, teens turn to serious and prolonged drug use because they have
not been provided with the inner resources to face life with confidence and
hope.

They have not been given a strong moral or spiritual foundation and,
therefore, feel empty, confused or afraid.

If a teen believes that his life has meaning, regardless of how the world
may look at any given moment, then he or she will likely possess the
strength to steer clear of drugs and alcohol.

The problem of teenage drug use is not, at base, a problem of education.
Teenagers know the risks. What can make a real difference is parenting.

A parent needs to help his child discriminate between true happiness and
mere pleasure or excitement.

That takes time and caring and commitment every day. But the result - a
drug-free child - is well worth the effort.