ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 10, 1996 TAG: 9609100071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
Forty percent of American parents believe they have little influence over whether their children smoke, drink or use drugs and blame ``society at large'' for the presence of drugs in schools, according to a national survey released Monday.
The conclusions appeared to support findings of a recent Clinton administration report on rising teen drug use, while prompting the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole to again fault the administration for the upsurge.
``What is infuriating about the attitude revealed in this survey is the resignation of so many parents to the present mess,'' said Joseph Califano Jr., the former Carter administration official who is chairman of the survey's sponsor, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at New York's Columbia University.
``The more parents take responsibility, the less at risk of using drugs their children are,'' Califano said.
Califano also pointed to 44 percent of parents who blame ``society at large'' for their children's schools not being drug-free. A total of 30 percent blamed their children, while 14 percent blamed themselves.
``The students in the survey ranked drug use as the biggest problem facing young people today,'' said Christina Martin, the Dole campaign's deputy press secretary. ``If only Bill Clinton would make teen drug abuse as high a priority as today's teen-agers do.''
In response, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala called on Congress to appropriate the $640 million requested by the administration for the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program.
The survey involved 1,200 students, ranging in age from 12 to 17, and 1,166 parents. It was said to be the first such survey to compare attitudes of teens and parents in the same households about all forms of substance abuse.
Last month, a survey conducted by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found drug use by teen-agers ages 12 to 17 rose 78 percent between 1992 and 1995.
This is the second year Califano's group conducted a survey. Last year, 86 percent of respondents said they never expect to try an illegal drug, but that dropped to 51 percent this year. Almost half of the parents surveyed, 49 percent, had tried marijuana in their youth.
While 46 percent of all parents surveyed said they expected their teens to try illegal drugs, that number increased among parents who had used marijuana as youths.
Some 65 percent of parents who used marijuana regularly as teens believe their own children will use drugs, as do 62 percent who experimented with the drug in their youth. Among parents who never tried marijuana, only 29 percent believe their children will try it.
When asked if it is a crisis for someone under 16 to smoke marijuana, 83 percent of parents who never tried pot said yes, and 58 percent of parents who smoked marijuana regularly as teens were similarly alarmed.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 linesby CNB