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NEW STUDY OF CHILD AND PARENT DRUG ABUSE
BY LUCILLE BLOCK
The Phoenix House Group of Rehabilitation Centers has just released recently results about teen drug use. 600 teens were surveyed. According to this new survey, 20% claim they take drugs with their parents. Of this percentage, 5% say that their introduction to drugs came through one or both of their parents. Marijuana was the most frequent drug used with teens with one or both parents. Of this 20%, 76% smoked marijuana with one or more parents; 19% smoked crack cocaine with one or both parents; 16% used cocaine through other means with one or both parents; 6% used heroin with one or both parents.
On the results, Peter Kerr, Phoenix House spokesperson, commented,"Frankly, you don't expect parents to be doing drugs with their kids. The world is somewhat different from what it was when I was growing up. "
"In 1965, the widespread use of illicit drugs began in America," continued Kerr, adding that some teens today are even using drugs with their grandparents in some cases. According to Kerr, of the parents (or grandparents) who have used drugs with their teens, the adults in these situations recall their own experimentation with drugs as an innocuous or controllable rite of passage. Their philosophy is that because they could handle it, their kids will be able to handle it.
Another facet of this line of reasoning is that parents claim that they would rather have the kids doing drugs at home with them in a controlled environment than out on the street. Kerr is quick to call attention to the fact that substances are more potent and different in many instances than the drugs of the 1970s, therefore people who puffed marijuana in the sixties do not really have a good handle on what it means to smoke it today, and this idea is true for other drugs as well.
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