What are some proven ways parents can help prevent drug use?
- Talk to your children – initiate the conversation about not using drugs, utilize current events as examples, be honest about your history to encourage their trust, devise a plan about how to rescue your child from a risky situation, establish ground rules for expected behavior and enforce those rules consistently.
- Have family dinners – kids who eat with their families less than 3 times a week are 2 ½ times more likely to have used tobacco and marijuana.
- Monitor your teen’s activities and his internet use - prescription drugs are easily obtained without a prescription via the web and have been proven to lead to illegal drug use.
- Be an example – children do what they see.
- Be active in your house of worship – a teen who is involved religiously is half as likely to use marijuana as a teen who isn’t.
- Recognize your role as the single most influential factor in your child’s life and rise to the challenge.
- Educate yourself about the most commonly abused drugs and their effects here.