DRUG ABUSE: PARENT POWER

Parents give themselves too little credit for their ability to influence
whether their teenage sons and daughters engage in drugs.

A nationwide survey by Columbia University's National Center on Addiction
and Substance abuse said 35 percent of parents think they have little
influence over their teens' decisions about whether to use alcohol, smokes
or illegal drugs.

Yet, the center's research over the years indicates that parents have the
most important influence on whether their children decide to use those
items. In the 2000 survey, for instance, 49 percent of the students who had
not tried marijuana attributed the decision to the influence of parents.

Parental discussion about perils of drugs before the teen years arrive is
especially important in heading off teen use, the survey indicated. Consider
this: 95 percent of teens who smoke cigarettes start at or before age 15; 93
percent of the students who drink alcohol start before that age; and 86
percent of teens who smoke pot start at or before that age.

In the case of cigarettes and booze, the average starting age is 12. It's 13
for marijuana. The center's statistics show that the risk of substance abuse
by teens increases by almost 500 percent between the ages of 12 and 16.

The center surveyed 541 parents and 1,000 students ages 12 to 17 nationwide,
with a plus/minus 3.1 percent margin of error for teen responses and
plus/minus 4.2 percent for adult responses. Here are some of the results:

Forty-three percent of parents think future drug use by their teen is
likely.

Eighty-nine percent of parents think there are drugs in their children's
schools despite the best efforts of administrators to keep them out.

Twenty-nine percent of teens said drugs, including alcohol and cigarettes,
are their biggest concern.

Teens who usually make A's and B's in school are at half the drug abuse risk
of teens getting lower grades.

Teens with six or more unexcused absences in the last year are at nearly
three times the substance-abuse risk of teens with with no such absences.

Teens who attend religious services four or more times a month are at nearly
half the risk of drug abuse as teens who do not attend religious services.

One of the more positive findings by the study is that 63 percent of youths
surveyed said their schools are drug free, which is slightly more than
double the figure reported in 1998.

But the youths also said that marijuana is as easy to get as cigarettes and
even easier to buy than booze.

The study results underscore the powerful influence parents can have in
keeping their children drug free.

Talking to them about drug dangers, helping them make good grades and
encouraging them to attend church pays off in many ways.