PARENTS HOLD THE POWER IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS

Excess Money, Boredom And Stress Are Risk Factors For Child Substance
Abuse. Parents Can Limit All Three - If They Choose To.

The Rules for rearing drug-free children typically include talking,
watching and listening, but a recent study adds these: Control their
cash flow, keep them busy and lower their stress.

Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse
found that rates of drugs, alcohol or tobacco use doubled when
children had more than $25 a week to spend, regardless of its source.
Anxiety had the same effect, and often-bored teens were 50 percent
more likely to abuse drugs.

Those findings don't suggest significant changes in good parenting
practices. They simply identify some specific areas that parents
should watch as they follow the fundamentals:

Talk. Address important issues such as drugs and sex early and often.
(The average age of initial alcohol and tobacco use is 12.) Stay
involved. Ask children about their lives. Know their friends.

But while parents are at it, they also should limit spending money.
"Giving a kid too much money is tantamount to putting a kid in harm's
way," said Joseph Califano, president of the substance abuse center.

Children also would benefit from parental pressure on school systems,
Califano said. More than half of students in the study said there were
drugs at their schools. That's another risk factor, but about half of
parents accepted it as a fact of life. Large schools also boost the
risk.

Other recent reports should encourage parents to act. A Horatio Alger
Association survey found that three-quarters of high school students
have good relationships with their parents - a key factor in the
ability to resist peer pressure. Almost half listed a parent as their
top role model, and many distrust what they see as the media's
negative influence on values and morals.

Their confidence is in their parents. The Partnership for a Drug-Free
America reported that 70 percent of children don't use marijuana
because it would upset their parents.

In other words, involved parenting is well worth the effort.