With drugs a scourge affecting communities everywhere, parents need to know how to help their kids on this vital subject.

Here are three questions many parents ask on the subject of drugs:

• How do I know if my child is using drugs?
• What do I do if I suspect they’re on drugs?
• What attitude should I have about this as a parent—what works best?

 

Parents who haven’t educated themselves on the most commonly used drugs:

• May miss signs that their son or daughter is using one or more of these substances
• May feel uneasy about bringing up the subject with their child
• May be unable to answer their questions or dispel the hype and false pro-drug lies.

So here is a simple answer to this problem: Inform yourself about what drugs are and what they do.

One thing to keep in mind is that drugs today may be quite different from the way they were when today’s parents were in their teens.

For example, according to U.S. Attorney General Vice Admiral Jerome Adams, “the marijuana available today is much stronger than previous versions. The THC concentration [the drug’s main psychedelic component] in commonly cultivated marijuana plants has increased threefold between 1995 and 2014.”

With more than three decades of experience educating youth and adults on this vital subject, Foundation for a Drug-Free World can help. Virtually anything a parent needs to know to talk to their kids about drugs is contained in the free online courses on the Foundation’s website at drugfreeworld.org.

Through these interactive courses, they learn:

• The reason people take drugs in the first place
• Essential facts about the most commonly used drugs
• The impact of these drugs on the lives of young people, presented by former users who speak from experience.

Foundation for a Drug-Free World is a volunteer-based organization. There are hundreds of groups internationally with many of them hosted by Churches of Scientology.

The Church is the main sponsor of the program, enabling the Foundation to provide this secular program and materials free of charge to parents, community leaders and drug educators worldwide.