What Parents Can Do About Teen Drug Abuse

Today we complete our four-part cycle on adolescence, dealing with teen substance abuse. National surveys indicate that teen substance abuse has been rising steadily, with over 21 percent of teens regularly using some kind of illicit drug. As you might expect, high school seniors use more alcohol and drugs than the freshmen do: 30 percent of 12th graders reported, for example, having more than five drinks in the past two weeks versus 15 percent of the 8th graders in that study. Another concern to note is the data on what we call the "perception of the risk of harm." Over a five-year period, those numbers dropped almost twenty percent among high school seniors when asked about the risks of smoking marijuana.

I remember my own thinking when I was a teen: I knew more than everybody else did, especially the adults. Many of the warnings that I heard about risk-taking seemed exaggerated and sometimes hypocritical.

It's one of the great challenges of adolescence: to make sense out of the contradictions of this adult world. It can be hard to argue effectively that legal mind-altering substances are any more acceptable or even preferable to some of the illegal ones, especially when so much multi-media exposure suggests that such drugs are cool, hip, or a good way to make a living. What young people need to be told is that about half of all traffic and other accidental fatalities are alcohol-related and there's no free ride just because you are a teen.

Isn't some alcohol or drug experimentation normal, or should all such use be considered dangerous and to be stopped at any cost?

I realize that growing up requires learning and trying out some new things and, eventually, deciding for yourself how to live your life. Like just about everybody else I know, I've tried some things (and didn't try others), and then I made up my own mind about who I wanted to be. Parents need to remember that teens are right in the middle of making these kinds of decisions. We have to let them know that we know that this is going on. Parents also need to talk with their teens about what I call "the other facts of life."

It seems just a little bit ironic that the first facts of life are about making life and love while, as I see it, the second are about the tragic consequences that can come from ignoring the things that can reduce life and even take it away.

Here are some things parents can do:

• Prevention is first. Teach moderation in just about everything. Be a role model in words and deeds especially about what you put into your own body.

• Kids at risk need to know the facts, even if they don't want to hear them yet. Read and go over some literature with them and talk about theirs and your own experiences, expectations and perceptions of risk. Teach them how to recognize and assess risk-related decisions and how to reduce risk by planning ahead for the consequences that they want to have in their lives. Help them to identify and repel peer influences to enlarge their experimental participation in alcohol and drug use.

• Alcohol and drug abuse increase the probabilities of other psychiatric, school, and legal problems and can cause serious harm secondary to injuries caused by intoxicated people. Lovingly look over your kids for these signs and bring them to helping resources, such as ministers, therapists, or your family doctors. Let them hear from other adults whom they trust that the only good experiments are the safe ones.

Most kids will get through this period with just a few minor scrapes. Our greatest asset for helping them to grow "up" is that we love them, will stand by them and will provide guidance and direction when they need it, even if they don't ask.

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