(Ed. note: The PDFA home page begins with the
greeting: "Welcome to the most complete and accurate compilation of information
about drugs on the Web." However, this press release "Boomer-Rang:
Baby Boomers Seriously Underestimating Presence of Drugs in Their Children’s Lives,"which
is the currently featured link from the page, is both sensationalistic and misleading. At
the top of the next page under the picture of a child who looks more like five than nine
years old, there is the caption:
"The number of 9-12 year-olds experimenting with marijuana increased from 334,000
in 1993 to 571,000 in 1997." This number is based on an increase from 3 percent to
5 percent of children in that age group. The margin of error for the children’s data
was plus or minus 2.2 percentage points. This means that marijuana use among this
group may actually have dropped! The margin of error for the teens was plus or minus 1.2;
for the adults, plus or minus 3.4.percentage points. The survey was conducted last
year among 1,922 children, 6,975 teens and 815 parents.
Leaving aside the inherent unreliability of questioning nine year-olds on
"anonymous self-completed questionnaires", this number is an extrapolation
from a very small sample [1,992] which varied within the unpublished margin of error.
Nowhere in the document is the margin of error published.
Apparently the AP, which ran an otherwise uncritical story, at least asked the PDFA
about the margin of error, but then did not think to look at the numbers.
See
Associated Press
Reports Uncritically On A Partnership For A Drug-Free America Survey On Kids’
Marijuana Use
It was the PDFA that chose to emphasize this number, perhaps because it sounds the most
alarming. No doubt it will be used in Congress to justify the suppression of medical
marijuana!)
Boomer-Rang: Baby Boomers Seriously Underestimating Presence of Drugs in Their
Children’s Lives
From www.drugfree.org
Drug use remains high among teenagers and children; 47 percent
increase in number of 9- to 12-year-olds offered drugs over last five years.
NEW YORK, April 13th – Despite dramatic increases in adolescent drug use since
1991, Baby Boomers are seriously underestimating the reality of drugs in their
children’s lives, according to a national study released today by the Partnership for
a Drug-Free America (PDFA).
"Parents, by and large, recognize the severity of the drug problem,
but few sincerely believe their children are exposed to drugs, that drugs are widely
available in schools their children attend," said Richard D. Bonnette, president
& CEO of the Partnership. "Boomers – many of whom have ‘been there,
done that’ – are surprisingly and ironically out of step with the reality of
drugs in their children’s lives."
Released today via the Internet, the Partnership Attitude
Tracking Study (PATS) – the only on-going national research that tracks drug use and
drug-related attitudes among children as young as eight and nine -- surveyed 9,712
children, teens and parents
across the country. The study documents a dramatic gap
between parents’ perceptions about their children and drugs, and what teenagers and
children are actually experiencing.
Topline findings from the research include:
•Some 43 percent of parents believe it’s possible that their teenager could
find marijuana easily. Yet 58 percent of teens say the drug is easy to come by.
•33 percent of parents said they believe their teenagers view marijuana as
harmful. Yet only 18 percent of teens -- fewer than one in five -- view trying pot as
risky.
•45 percent of parents believe their son or daughter may have friends who smoke
pot. Yet 71 percent of teens say they have friends who use the drug.
•Just 21 percent of parents acknowledged the possibility that their teen might
have tried marijuana, significantly lower than the 44 percent of teens who say
they’ve done so.
•38 percent of parents said their teenagers might have been offered drugs, when,
in fact, 59 percent of teenagers reported being offered an illicit substance.
•Six out of 10 teens (59 percent) were offered drugs in 1997, up significantly
from 1995 (52 percent) and 1993 (46 percent). One third of all teens (33 percent) were
offered drugs at school in 1997, up from 32 percent in 1996 and 23 percent in 1993.
•Almost three out of every 10 children (9- to 12-year olds, children in the 4th
through 6th grades) were offered drugs in 1997 – an increase of 47 percent since 1993
(28 percent were offered drugs in 1997; 24 percent in 1996; 19 percent in 1993).
•The number of 4th through 6th graders (9- to 12-year-olds)
experimenting with marijuana increased from 334,000 in 1993 to 571,000 in 1997. (Ed. note: The margin of error for the children’s data was plus or
minus 2.2 percentage points. This means that marijuana use among this group may
actually have dropped! But how do you go about asking kids about their illegal
experiences? This could actually have the effect of encouraging "drug" use.)
•Teen drug use: Marijuana use leveled off among younger teens at high levels.
Older teens showed an increase in marijuana use. Use of cocaine, crack, methamphetamine
remained unchanged.
Tables
"Even though we’ve seen significant increases in adolescent
drug use, parents surprisingly still underestimate the reality of drugs," Bonnette
said. "This is a very complicated, very personal perceptual problem for parents.
Teens see drugs all around them, and many deal with the pressure to experiment with little
help from home. It’s not that parents don’t care – they do. But few parents
believe their children are at risk, nor do they know when drugs are likely to become a
part of their children’s lives."
Drug use is significantly lower among children who learn about the risks
of drugs at home, according to the Partnership’s study, yet only 28 percent of teens
-- just over one in four -- say they’ve learned a great deal about the dangers of
drugs from their parents.
"Research tells us that parents can prevent a variety of risky
behavior among their kids, including drug use," Bonnette said. "But taking
action to protect your children first requires recognizing -- and then believing -- the
possibility that your own kids are susceptible. It’s easy to recognize the drug
problem from a distance. But seeing it as a real threat to your own children is too close
to home for some people."
An analysis of public opinion polls, published in the March 18th issue of
the Journal of the American Medical Association, echoes PDFA’s findings. Some 82
percent of Americans believe drugs are a serious problem nationally, but only 21 percent
believe the problem is serious locally. Some 43 percent of parents believe children using
drugs is a serious national crisis, yet only 8 percent believe it is a crisis in their
local schools, and 6 percent, in their local communities.
While 94 percent of parents interviewed for PDFA’s study said they
talked with their teens about drugs over the last year, only 67 percent of teens recalled
those discussions. Some 54 percent of parents talked with their teenagers about drugs at
least four times, yet less than a quarter (24 percent) of these teens recalled those
discussions.
New Media Campaign
A new, national advertising campaign -- being coordinated by the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), in cooperation with the Partnership
-- will target parents with powerful messages about drugs. The federal government is
providing $195 million to purchase media exposure for the campaign -- a first -- and PDFA
is providing all advertising to the effort pro bono. Up to 40 percent of the ads in the
campaign will target parents.
The new campaign is underway in 12 U.S. cities and will go national in July.
"We’re extremely grateful to the members of Congress who approved this campaign,
and for General McCaffrey’s leadership," said James E. Burke, chairman of PDFA,
referring to the director of ONDCP. "This effort will reach parents with powerful
messages and encourage them to act now to protect their kids."
For further information (PRESS ONLY):
Steve Dnistrian (212)973-3504
Leigh Leventhal (212)973-3505
PDFA Pager (800) 800-7759
(Ask operator for "Partnership for a Drug-Free America."
The Partnership Attitude Tracking Study monitors drug-related behavior and attitudes
among children, teens and parents. It is the largest, on-going research on drug-related
attitudes in the US, and the only on-going drug survey that collects data on children as
young as eight and nine. This is the 10th installment of PATS conducted since 1987. For this installment, 1,922 children, 6,975 teenagers and 815 parents
completed self-administered, anonymous questionnaires in 1997; data was analyzed in late
1997 and early 1998; findings were released April 13, 1998.
The Partnership for a Drug-Free America is a private, non-profit coalition of
professionals from the communications industry. Best known for its national, anti-drug
advertising campaign, the Partnership’s mission is to reduce demand for illicit drugs
in America through media communication. To date, more than $2.8
billion in media exposure and some 500 ads have been donated to the Partnership's national
campaign, making this the single, largest, public service ad campaign in history. PDFA
receives major funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and financial support from
more than 200 private sector corporations. PDFA accepts no money from manufacturers of
alcohol and/or tobacco products
(Ed. note: This is a recent development. For years the
PDFA took money from these industries. Of course, it continues to take money from the
pharmaceutical industry.)
