Just Say No... Please?

Some of the risky behaviors that teenagers engage in are more difficult to handle than others. One of the behaviors that parents most often struggle with is how to handle teenage drug and alcohol use.

Many parents feel that any drug or alcohol use that their teens engage in is cause for serious alarm. This is certainly the reaction that any D.A.R.E. program would encourage parents to have. However, it’s important to recognize that teens who experiment socially with drugs but never develop addictive behaviors, often have fewer symptoms of neuroticism than those who abstain from drugs entirely. So it’s not necessarily a sign that anything’s wrong if your kids are experimenting with drugs.

Some parents feel that teenagers who experiment with drugs and/or alcohol are going to do so regardless of what they say and feel it’s safer for their teens to experiment with them under parental supervision. While it is debatable whether this technique is actually safer for teens, what’s not debatable is that parents who knowingly and willingly allow their teenagers to use drugs and/or alcohol in their presence are guilty of supervisory neglect in the eyes of the law.

So what are parents to do? Like other teen behaviors, it’s important to consider risk and safety. Parents can and should let their teens know that they do not condone the behavior. They can also make it clear that their teens are not allowed to engage in any sort of illegal drug use in the home.

Whether or not parents suspect that their teenagers are using drugs, it’s often helpful to talk frankly and openly about some of the risk factors associated with different drugs. For example:

• While alcohol is more socially acceptable than other drugs and is not physically addictive, heavy users can build up a tolerance to it over time and are susceptible to long-term health risks, like liver and cardiovascular disease.

• Marijuana is not physically addictive, the body does not build up a tolerance to it, and it’s not known whether a person can overdose while using it. That said, there is some evidence that smoking marijuana can lead to a higher risk in teens of developing schizophrenia, particularly in families who have a history of the disease. Smoking marijuana three times a week or more can also lead to long-term health risks, such as lung cancer.

• Nicotine, while more socially acceptable than marijuana, is highly addictive physically. In fact, there are some studies that have shown it’s more addictive physically than heroin. Nicotine’s effects on long-term health can also be pretty severe. Smokers can suffer from a number of lung-related diseases, such as emphysema and lung cancer, while users of chewing tobacco can develop cancers on their cheeks, gums, lips, tongues, and inside of their mouths.

• Stimulants, like heroin and cocaine, are highly addictive physically and users can overdose or even die after just one use. Users can also develop a tolerance to these drugs relatively quickly, requiring more and more of the drug just to feel normal.

Parents can also let teens know that even if a drug isn’t addictive physically, people can develop psychological addictions to any drug. People who are psychologically addicted may experience symptoms such as irritability, loss of interest in daily activities, defensiveness, denial, minimization of symptoms, and engagement in compromising or illegal activities. Parents can assure their teens that they are there to help should teens find they need to overcome an addiction. Parents can also let their teenagers know that if they observe any of these symptoms, they will intervene on their teens’ behalf in order to ensure that they get the help they need.