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All the above names are pseudonyms.
Sam Boykin
Contact Sam Boykin at sam.boykin@creativeloafing.com or 704-944-3623. hey dad, don't bogart that joinT Boomers have the distinction of coming of age during an era marked by historic and revolutionary events -- Vietnam, Woodstock, Nixon, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy -- which, to a great extent, had an indelible influence on their ideals and beliefs. The boomer generation also has the distinction, according to most studies, of having the highest single year increase (1967-1968) of teen marijuana usage.
What kind of influence did those experiences have on their parenting skills, and what kind of impact has it had on their kids? For one, it seems to have greatly altered traditional parent-child relationships. Compared to their own parents, most boomers believe they're pretty clued in to what their kids are experiencing and doing.
"I could have come home tripping my brains out and my mom and dad wouldn't have had a clue," said one Boomer. This unique social dynamic is a good thing; boomer parents can better relate to what their kids are going through, enabling them to create positive dialogue and communication.
However, some studies indicate that the supposedly streetwise "been there, done that" boomer parents can be pretty clueless when it comes to drugs and their kids. A 1999 report by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, in which 1,922 children, 6,975 teenagers and 815 parents completed self-administered, anonymous questionnaires, found that parents underestimated the availability of marijuana, their children's view of its risks, and whether their children's friends were smoking. It also indicated that among children ages 9 to 12, the number who had tried marijuana was up from 334,000 in 1993 to 571,000. Marijuana use among ages 13 to 16 remained stable, but there was a significant increase among 17- and 18-year-olds from 41 percent in 1996 to 48 percent in '99.
Locally, according to a 1998 survey of 4,000 youths by Charlotte's Prevention Services, the steepest upsurge in alcohol and marijuana use occurred between grades 7 and 8. The survey also indicated that approximately 20 percent of youths ages 12-18 reported having used alcohol over the past 30 days, followed by cigarettes (19 percent) and marijuana (14.5 percent).
So while boomers may have rebelled back in their day and think they can relate to what their own kids are going through, some research suggests that many parents don't truly understand how the drug landscape has changed. Namely, marijuana and other drugs are more potent than ever and first-time users are more likely to be in middle or high school than in college. Moreover, some parents, counselors say, mistakenly and naively believe that sharing an occasional joint with their teenager can ease family tensions and make a parent seem more like a buddy in whom their teen can confide.
A 2000 survey of nearly 600 teens in drug treatment in New York, Texas, Florida and California indicated that 20 percent had shared drugs other than alcohol with their parents, and that about 5 percent of the teens actually were introduced to drugs -- usually marijuana -- by Mom or Dad.
"That whole 'buddy' concept is definitely a boomer generation phenomenon," says Joanne Jenkins of Prevention Services. "A lot of these parents see themselves and their kids in a partnership, as though it's some kind of collaboration. That's not what a parent's job is. Someone has to set policy and enact corrective behavior. The most frustrating thing for me is when parents call and say, 'I've found some drugs in my kid's room, what should I do?' I'm like, well, you need to bust them. It's illegal. When I ask them what their household stance is on the use of drugs, a lot of times the answer is, 'Well, we don't have one.' It's that kind of passive Charlotte reaction -- just ignore it, and the problem will go away."
"We've had quite a few patients who said they were introduced to drugs and alcohol by their parents," said Bob Martin, Director of Substance Abuse Services for CMC Mercy. "The drinking age for a lot of the baby boomers growing up was 18, and a lot of my patients talk about beginning to drink at a very early age. The younger the person has their first exposure to drugs and alcohol, the more likely they are to have a problem later on in life.
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