[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 21, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2076-H2077]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       PARENTS NEED TO PAY MORE ATTENTION TO DRUG USE OF CHILDREN

  (Mr. McCOLLUM asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include therein 
extraneous material.)
  Mr. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, yesterday I was looking around for 
something and could not find it, but today I found it, the editorial in 
the Wall Street Journal entitled ``The Dope on Spring.'' I commend it 
to my colleagues to read about marijuana and the fact that our parents 
of our kids today are not paying enough attention to drug use in this 
country.
  It says, 71 percent of teenagers said in a recent poll by Partnership 
for a Drug-Free America that they had friends who use marijuana, and 
half of them admitted that they did. This editorial points that fact 
out.
  It also points out that only 21 percent of parents believe that their 
own children partake in it. The facts are, the Journal goes on to say, 
that, as opposed to 25 or 30 years ago today, even soft drugs like 
marijuana can be as much as 10 times more potent than the joints that 
parents toked. That is because of hydroponic strains and a lot of other 
things.
  They also point out, though, that polls show that 82 percent of these 
parents believe drugs are a serious problem nationally, but only 6 
percent

[[Page H2077]]

think the problems exist in their local high schools. They go on to 
say, earth to parents, it is spring, and it may be time for a chat.
  I would suggest everybody needs to take a chat with a youngster 
today, and I commend your reading this Wall Street Journal editorial.
  The text of the Wall Street Journal editorial is as follows:

                     [From the Wall Street Journal]

                  Review & Outlook--The Dope on Spring

       About this time last year, a forwarded email message was 
     making the rounds of college campuses. ``Don't forget,'' the 
     message advised, ``the appropriate greeting is ``hi, how are 
     you?'' not ``how high are you?''''
       This month, while grown-ups were busy preparing tax 
     returns, a lot of their college-attending children were 
     partaking in the annual springtime bacchanalian festivals 
     either in warmer climes or in on-campus celebrations of some 
     meaningful date in their school's history. On these occasions 
     many of the students ingest a cornucopia of drugs that most 
     of their parents (despite imagined babyboomer sophistication) 
     have never hear of.
       Nor does it seem they have much interest in knowing what's 
     going on. Despite all the attention given to drug abuse, 
     parents are apparently disinclined to believe that their kids 
     are using drugs. In a study released last week by the 
     Partnership for a Drug-Free America, 71% of teenagers said 
     they ``had friends who use'' marijuana and almost half 
     admitted they themselves had tried it. But only 21% of 
     parents thought that their little angels might partake 
     (admittedly even that must go down as a higher percentage 
     than their own parents would have conceded).
       In fact, this is a drug ``culture'' with frightening 
     differences from the glory days of 25 or 30 years ago. Today 
     even ``soft'' drugs like marijuana can be as much as 10 times 
     more potent than the joints their parents toked. Because of 
     crackdowns or smuggling, the neighborhood greenhouse business 
     has flourished: New strains like ``hydroponic,'' where the 
     plants are grown without soil and ``wet''--marijuana soaked 
     in formaldehyde--have been increasing the drug's potency 
     exponentially. Meanwhile, drug use among teenagers has 
     doubled since 1990.
       Other drugs, like methamphetamine, are also the product of 
     basement alchemy, often involving youths producing it, which 
     in turn introduces some of them to criminal enterprises. 
     There are substantial profit margins in this new underworld 
     for chemists who turn over-the-counter cold medicines into a 
     particularly wicked concoction called ``ice,'' ``crank'' or 
     speed.'' Costing $5 to $25 a dose, it offers a high similar 
     to powder cocaine, which retails at upward of $100 a gram, 
     but it is much more accessible to a middle-schooler's 
     allowance. And these laboratories are proliferating.
       Something else that's new: The spread of black-market 
     pharmaceuticals like Ritalin and Ephedrine, which have become 
     a hot commodity in many suburban neighborhoods. Last 
     November, a group of suburban middle-schoolers got hauled in 
     by Virginia police when the principal caught a seventh 
     grander selling his Ritalin prescription to his pals. Other 
     favorites come right off the store shelves: Krylon gold paint 
     for inhaling and whipped-cream cans for nitrous oxide.
       Last April, a 16-year old in a Chicago suburb was caught 
     with 37 grams of marijuana, some opium and paraphernalia 
     stashed in his parents house. A 15-year-old set up shop 
     selling pot, PCP, Extasy and Special K in an affluent 
     District of Columbia suburb. These aren't just the kids from 
     the wrong side of the tracks. Ask any college student about 
     the prevalence and diversity of the new chemical culture. 
     You'll get an education.
       For the '70s generation, famous for its hedonistic 
     experimentalism, the statistics suggest a willful ignorance. 
     Parents disbelieve, perhaps because they're afraid to find 
     out the truth. Polls show that 82% believe drugs are a 
     ``serious problem nationally,'' but only 6% think the problem 
     exists in their local high school.
       The baby-boomers' self-indulgence has come home to roots, 
     only this time there's no ideological crutch. What's becoming 
     increasingly obvious is that Gen-X drug use involves 
     teenagers who've rejected their parents' political ideals but 
     adopted their libertinism. A 1995 study by the University of 
     Michigan revealed that after a 13-year lull, teenage drug use 
     had climbed three years in a row. Yet nearly one kid in three 
     claimed that his or her parents have never discussed drugs 
     with them. Only a quarter say it's a topic of frequent 
     conversation.
       Earth to parents: It's spring, and it might be time for a 
     chat.

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