Narconon News

In light of recent study results that show that more than fifty percent of schoolchildren have abused some illicit or prescription drugs before graduation from high school, it would be wise for parents to keep themselves informed about how prevalent these trends are, learn about ways to prevent such abuse, and familiarize themselves with the idea of drug testing.

However, drug testing is not the only way to head off drug abuse in our children and teens. Parents have a stronger influence over their own kids than they may think. Drug abuse statistics actually show that when parents express themselves against drug abuse, the statistics do go down.

Many parents may ask themselves what they can do to prevent or stop drug abuse particularly in their own family. Just as parents have various approaches to childrearing when their children are young, the question as to what will be appropriate for your family is your personal preference. Many parents will be pro-active and try to head off drug abuse with early drug education as to the harmful effects of drugs. Others are preoccupied with their own problems, cannot pay much attention to the issue of drug abuse, and may simply hope that their children will stay off drugs. Some will not see the problem at all – until their children are already too far down the road of drug abuse.

One may wonder if the route of drug education is best, or should one simply administer frequent drug testing, as some school districts are now doing particularly for students involved in any kind of extracurricular sports activities.

In Florida, there is a continuing discussion about the appropriateness of drug testing welfare recipients as a requirement to receive their welfare benefits.

The question about drug education is whether it is effective. Certainly if it is, then it would divert more kids away from ever starting to take drugs. What else can parents do to help discourage their kids from starting to take drugs if the education measures do not effectively do this?

To find out more about this topic, there have been studies at the National Center on Addiction and Drug Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) as to methods parents may use to prevent drug abuse by their children. Findings of their studies are so simple that some may not think it effective.

Simply having family dinners together five or more nights per week could be a very effective deterrent to your teenage children becoming involved in drug use. When those families were compared to those who ate family dinners together three or fewer times per week, it was found that there were significant differences in their teens’ drug-related behaviors:

Teenagers who ate family dinners together less often were:

• more likely to smoke tobacco by a factor of almost four times;
• twice as likely to drink alcohol or smoke marijuana;
• nearly four times as likely to say that they would expect to use drugs in the future

CASA studies also show that it is important for parents to agree on their message whether it is concerning drug or alcohol use. When parents present a united front on these topics, their children are much more likely to stay away from alcohol or drugs than the children of parents who disagreed with each other. When parents agreed about drug use, their children are 3.5 times less likely to use drugs; and when parents agreed about an anti-alcohol message, their children are twice as likely not to drink alcohol.

In addition to providing effective drug rehabilitation in more than fifty centers on six different continents of the world, Narconon also provides effective drug education that delivers a completely acceptable anti-drug message to youth in many schools, clubs and community centers. Staffs from Narconon centers go into the community to teach children of all ages the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. Where this curriculum has been presented, schools have found that their drug problems lessen. This was documented in a peer-reviewed study reporting on the lowering of drug abuse among students who had studied the full curriculum from Narconon. It is available on the web at: www.substanceabusepolicy.com.

The good news shown in CASA reports is that youth who don’t go down the road of drug or alcohol early (before the age of 21) are much more likely to never abuse drugs or alcohol.

The best way to prevent alcohol or drug abuse is accurate education as to the problems these substances create for users, sincere and communicated parents’ concerns, and paying close attention to your children and teenagers.

Call the Narconon International office today to find out where a Narconon drug education center is near you.

http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-overview2011.pdf

http://www.casacolumbia.org/templates/publications_reports.aspx: The Importance of Family Dinners VII and National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XVI: Teens and Parents

http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/3/1/8

http://www.bcrnews.com/2012/01/24/ohio-looks-at-drug-testing-options/ac9ga6f/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/25/florida-primary-candidates-drug-policy?newsfeed=true