Human Services News

CASAColumbia.org: National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse

One-third of teens and nearly half of 17-year olds attend house parties where parents are present and teens are drinking, smoking marijuana or using cocaine, Ecstasy or prescription drugs, according to the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XI: Teens and Parents, an annual back-to-school survey conducted by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.

CASA's survey also reveals that teens who say parents are not present at the parties they attend are 16 times likelier to say alcohol is available, 15 times likelier to say illegal and prescription drugs are available and 29 times likelier to say marijuana is available, compared to teens who say parents are always present at the parties they attend.

"Teen drinking and drugging is a parent problem.

Too many parents fail to fulfill their responsibility to chaperone their kids' parties.

They have no idea how drug- and alcohol-infested their teens' world is," said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA's chairman and president and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

"The denial, self-delusion and lack of awareness of these parental palookas put their children at enormous risk of drinking and using illegal and prescription drugs."

80 percent of parents believe that neither alcohol nor marijuana is usually available at parties their teens attend.

BUT 50 percent of teen partygoers attend parties where alcohol, drugs or both are available.

98 percent of parents say they are normally present during parties they allow their teens to have at home.

BUT a third of teen partygoers report that parents are rarely or never present at the parties they attend.

"If your teen is having a party at your home, you should not only be there, but be aware of what is going on.

The Dangerous Divide: Age 13 to 14 The transition from age 13 to age 14 is a particularly risky time for American teens.

Two times likelier to be offered cocaine.

One in five 12- to 17-year olds (19 percent) has personally witnessed the sale of drugs in their neighborhood, and these teens are more than two and one half times the risk of substance abuse compared to teens who have not seen the sale of drugs in their neighborhood.

Hispanic and African American 12- and 13-year olds are being offered illegal drugs at three times the rate of white 12- and 13-year olds (20 percent vs. seven percent).

For the first time, the CASA survey reveals that at every age, the substance abuse gender gap has closed.

Most high school students (51 percent) and one in five middle school students (20 percent) attend a school where drugs are used, kept or sold.

CASA is the creator of the nationwide initiative Family Day -- A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Childrentm -- the fourth Monday in September -- the 25th in 2006 -- that promotes parental engagement as a simple and effective way to reduce children's risk of smoking, drinking and using illegal drugs.

*The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University is neither affiliated with, nor sponsored by, the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association (also known as "CASA") or any of its member organizations with the name of "CASA".