I read in last Wednesday's Record that, following a survey last spring of their public school students in grades 4 through 12, the Fair Lawn school district found that many of its students are using alcohol and drugs. According to their superintendent, that survey, plus the recent cocaine related death caused by a 17-year-old local girl, is "an eye-opener for the community." Most districts, including mine, say that "only a few" of their students use drugs. How do they know? I haven't seen results of any drug survey done in my town.

Anxious Parent

Dear Anxious,

I read the same article and was struck by the similarity of Fair Lawn's April 1999 survey results to that of the countrywide American Drug and Alcohol Survey compiled last year by the Rocky Mountain Behavioral Science Institute in Colorado. Fair Lawn discovered that 18% of its 4th graders (9 years old!) had tried alcohol, 1% smoked cigarettes and 6% tried inhalants. By 8th grade (avg. age about 13), some 59% of their students had used alcohol, 11% were using cigarettes and 35% had tried marijuana. Also revealed was a steady jump in usage by students in the higher grades. By the time Fair Lawn students had reached 12th grade…they were reporting that 94% of them had tried alcohol, 71% smoked cigarettes; 60% marijuana, and 12% inhalants. Unlike most towns in Bergen County, the powers that be in Fair Lawn are in the process of forming a task force which they hope will attract support not only by the educators but the parents, students, and politicians. Well, good luck to them, as therein lies a problem… Without advice, dedicated parental involvement, the task force will fail to make any difference in drug use by the town's kids. Why do I think that way?

The majority of today's parents, educators and politicians are baby boomers, who, when they hear the word "denial" think of it only as a "river in Egypt!" Famous for their own forays with mind-altering drugs, they appear unable to believe that their children could be using drugs and are unwilling to broach the subject with their kids. They may understand that there is a drug problem in this country, but when it is their town or their own living room, they have a real recognition problem. I am certain that many boomers skirt the issue because of discomfort about their own youthful alcohol and other drug experiences but, in my opinion, most know diddly-dit about the strength of today's mind-altering drugs. Due to this lack of education, they are simply ill equipped to start opening up discussions about drugs with their children. That 's why 30% of teenagers report that their parents have never talked to them about drugs. In a recent national survey, 21% of the parents acknowledged the possibility that their child my have tried marijuana, although 44% of their children actually have used the drug. Seventy percent of the surveyed teenagers say they have friends who are using drugs: only 45% of parents knew that their children had some drug using friends. This is simply, clueless parenting.

For nearly two decades my wife and I have provided drug education lectures to various parent groups. One school district requires the parents of their athletes to attend such drug educational lectures prior to allowing their children to participate in their chosen sport. Attendance there has been excellent; in contrast to the dismal response by parents in most other districts without any attendance requirement. It seems that the level of parental involvement in any effort to address the problem of substance abuse by their kids is directly proportional to the size of the footprints placed on their rear ends by those who give a damn about the generation which will eventually assume control of our cities, state, and nation.