Teens and drug use

According to 2007 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control , nearly half of all teens drink alcohol. The same report noted that 26 percent of high school students binge drink and that 11 percent reported driving a car or other vehicle during the past 30 days when they had been drinking alcohol.

While illicit drug use has decreased among teens, they still continue to use prescription and over-the-counter medication. In 2006, 2.1 million teens abused prescription drugs, according to the CDC.

Valerie Ulene, a preventive medicine specialist who writes the M.D. column for the Los Angeles Times, recently advised parents that they need to set no-use rules for their teens. “Adults should not only talk openly with their children about the dangers of drugs and alcohol but also articulate and enforce very clear ‘no use’ rules,” she wrote in her latest column, “ Parents: Kill a buzz, save a life. ”  “Such rules have been shown to greatly reduce the likelihood that teens will use drugs and alcohol. (And the logical assumption is that they’re then less likely to get wasted, be involved in an alcohol-related car accident, etc).”

Some parents, however, have a hard time imposing those rules, she said. They think teens need to learn from their own mistakes and that it’s OK for their kids to experiment. After all, about 61 percent of parents have tried drugs or alcohol when they were young, the director of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America told Ulene.

What do you think? What advice do you tell your kids when it comes to drugs and alcohol? When they ask you if you drank or smoked pot as a teen, do you tell them the truth?