QUESTION: What are the things that really help kids decide not to use chemical substances?

ANSWER:  Adolescent research on alcohol, tobacco and other drug use shows that there are three core influences on youth non-use of chemical substances.  First, kids have to believe that chemical substances are dangerous.  Second, kids have to know that their parents will be really upset if they use chemical substances.  Third, 70 to 80 percent of the kids who do not use chemical substances report that their friends don’t use them either.

For most kids, it’s tobacco, alcohol and marijuana that are the chemical use threats. These are the “gateway” drugs. Very rarely, for instance, is meth the first drug someone uses.  In fact, research shows that one of the best protective factors against drug involvement is an adolescent decision never to smoke tobacco.  So keep talking with your kids about the dangers of tobacco use and how disappointed and upset you will be if they should ever decide to smoke cigarettes.

Here is a review of the facts about tobacco that are worth sharing with the kids in your life: 1) smoking tobacco limits the growth of adolescent lungs; 2) cigarette smoke contains the same chemicals used in rat poison, toilet bowl cleaner and dead frog preserver; 3) besides being the main ingredient in the cigarettes, tobacco leaves are also used to make bug killer; 4) the number of people who die in the United States each day of smoking-related diseases could fill three jumbo jets; 5) the nicotine a smoker inhales from cigarette smoke reaches the brain within a few seconds; 6) an adult could be killed by 60 milligrams of nicotine (that’s about the same as 120 grams of salt) if they took it all at once; 60 milligrams of nicotine can be found in 7 cigarettes; 7) the voice box (larynx), stomach and lungs are all affected by smoking; 8) smokeless tobacco can cause sores in the mouth and gums; 9) chewing nicotine gum, which supplies low doses of nicotine may help smokers break the smoking habit; 10) 20 minutes after a person quits smoking, his/her pulse rate returns to normal; 11) the nicotine in tobacco will make the heart work harder, increase the chance of a heart attack, and be a risk for the baby of a pregnant woman; 12) when you smoke your skin will turn yellow, be dryer and wrinkle sooner. 

If you would like to talk with a parenting specialist about raising children, call the toll-free Parent WarmLine at 1-888-584-2204/Lnea de Apoyo at 877-434- 0528.  For free emergency child care call Crisis Nursery at 1-877-434-9599.  Check out www.familiesandcommunities.org.

Maryanne Law is the executive director of the Parenting Resource Center in Austin.