It's on high school campuses and nearby streets. Marijuana has become so available that some Greater Cincinnati teens say it's easier to buy than cigarettes.

        Pot is “easy to get,” said Vu Mai, a 17-year-old senior at Glen Este High School. “There are about five people I could go to.”

        He hasn't seen marijuana pushed at Glen Este, he said, but drug dealers have approached him away from campus.

Glen Este senior Seth Jones

        His experience mirrors those of 1,000 youths ages 12 to 17 surveyed in 2000 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

        The survey results, released Wednesday, show that drugs remain U.S. teens' No.1 concern. And fewer youths — 51 percent — expect to totally abstain from future drug use than in 1999, when 60 percent expected to abstain. More also believe it's easier to buy pot than cigarettes.

        The study concluded that a more hands-on parenting approach — where adults establish rules and expectations for their children's behavior — minimizes chances that teens will smoke, drink or use drugs.

        “The loud-and-clear message of the survey is this: Moms and dads should be parents to their children, not pals,” said Joseph A. Califano Jr., the center's chairman and president. “Mothers and fathers who are parents, rather than pals, can greatly reduce the risk of their children smoking, drinking and using drugs.”

Glen Este senior Vu Mai

       

Marijuana "more accepted'
        Mark Peters, principal of Clermont County's Glen Este High, supports that conclusion whole-heartedly. He has been an educator for 28 years. In that time, he said, teens have become more open to trying drugs, particularly marijuana.

        “The difference is, it's far more accepted,” Mr. Peters said. “People are no longer shocked when young people become involved (in drugs). That's why we have a more blatant use.

        “It's a disaster. We're losing a generation of kids. Parents have to realize their job is to raise kids and not be friends with kids.”

        He urged a get-tough approach through which parents search their children's rooms and clothes, establish rules of conduct and follow through with discipline should those rules be disobeyed.

        Glen Este senior Seth Jones, 17, said the tactic has worked with him. He also has noticed a gaining acceptance of drug use. He said that it's not just the “stoners” or “skaters” who are smoking, drinking and using drugs.

        “Now, it's really every single group,” Mr. Jones said.
       

It's easy to get pot

SURVEY FINDINGS

Findings of a national teen survey released Wednesday:     • In 2000, one-third of 1,000 teens surveyed said it was easier to buy marijuana rather than cigarettes. This compared to 27 percent in 1999.     • 28 percent knew somebody who had used Ecstasy. Ten percent said they had been to a rave and that Ecstasy was available at 70 percent of these parties.     • Drugs remain the No. 1 teen concern. In 2000, 51 percent said they would never try an illegal drug. The figure was down from 60 percent in 1999.     • 25 percent live with “hands-on” parents who have set a household culture of rules and expectations for their teens' behavior. When compared to average teens, this group is at a substantially lower risk of smoking, drinking and using illegal drugs.

TIPS FOR PARENTS

• Don't be afraid to communicate with your kids.     • Know your child's friends; make sure the friends don't smoke, drink or use drugs. Your child's friends have a lot of influence over them, so make sure your kid chooses them wisely.     • Encourage your kids to participate in after-school activities such as sports, clubs or community service. Just hanging out with friends after school or being bored can lead to smoking, drinking or doing drugs.     • Make a point to eat dinner together, or set aside other family time, and use it as a communication tool.     • Enforce in your children the need for them to make their own decisions, not have peers negatively influence them.     Source: National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University, New York

        Last year, the Coalition for a Drug-Free Cincinnati surveyed 47,000 teens in Hamilton, Warren, Butler, Clermont, Brown, Kenton, Campbell and Boone counties. Fifty percent said it's easy to get pot, said Rhonda Ramsey Molina, the coalition's executive director.

        It also showed that 44 percent have experience with alcohol, drugs or tobacco by the end of the seventh grade and 25 percent have consumed alcohol by the age of 12.

        Also, teens who attend parties are 18 times more likely to use marijuana, 23 times more likely to drink beer and 12 times more likely to smoke cigarettes, she said.

        “We're not saying that children shouldn't have a social life, but where those parties are there needs to be responsible adults,” Ms. Molina said. “Parents are extremely important in prevention. Children do listen to their parents, and they do play a role in their choices.”

        Fort Thomas parents recently received a crash course on teen marijuana use.

        About two weeks ago, a dozen teen-agers from the upscale Campbell County suburb were arrested for what police called an “open-air drug market” near Highlands High School.

        The school has become known for posting some of the highest test scores in Kentucky and is a football powerhouse.

        “I don't think there's anything in the world I could do to make sure it didn't happen again,” said Dave Freer, assistant principal at Highlands. “Kids unfortunately test the system.”

        He worries that marijuana use places teens on a precarious path.

        “It leads on to other things,” he said. “That's when it scares me big time.”
       

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