McCaffrey calls on parents to fight drugs

By Cheryl Wetzstein
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

No one is disputing that parents are society's primary ally in discouraging
young people from using drugs. The "kitchen table" is "the most important
weapon in fighting drugs," says retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the Clinton
administration's antidrug director.

"Parental involvement is the most reliable life preserver in a society that
tosses children into a sea of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, which floods
their schools and saturates their TV, movies and music," says antidrug
leader Joseph A. Califano Jr.

But in a troublingly large number of homes, parents appear to have left the
front lines in the war on drugs: Many baby boomers are ambivalent about
marijuana use because of their own experiences with it and because they
hear conflicting information about the danger it poses.