Lifestyle
Parents unaware of teens' drug use
Winter 2010 |
(Nov. 15 /CNW ) It's National Drug Awareness Week—but a new poll suggests Canadian parents are anything but aware of what is going on in their teens' lives with respect to drugs. The poll also found that: •One in five Canadians said they had prescription painkillers in their medicine cabinet at home; and In its efforts to prevent youth substance abuse, CCSA has created a drug prevention website (Xperiment.ca) and an online healthy lifestyle channel for youth (URL-TV). These sites, along with a helpful pamphlet published by Health Canada called Talking with Your Teen about Drugs, may be a good way to get the conversation about drugs started.
A Harris/Decima survey commissioned by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) found that:
•70 percent of Canadian parents surveyed don't think their kids (aged 12-17) have experimented with drugs; and
•80 percent of parents say they are confident they would recognize signs of drug use in someone close to them.
Yet the evidence shows nearly one third of 15-17 year olds and almost half of 18-19 year olds report using marijuana in the past year. Canadians smoke more cannabis than any other developed nation in the world; in some high-risk groups, kids as young as 11 are experimenting for the first time (Ontario Student Drug Use Health Survey, 2009).
•Most parents (92 percent) did not believe their son or daughter has ever stolen a prescription drug from the family medicine cabinet.
However, 18 percent of Ontario students in Grades 7-12 admitted taking prescription drugs for non-medicinal reasons; three quarters of those said they got the drugs from their own home (Ontario Student Drug Use Health Survey, 2009).
While 95 percent of parents feel they have enough knowledge to talk to their teen about drugs, only 80 percent say they would be able to recognize the signs of drug use or abuse in someone close to them.
