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Help! I think my child is using drugs. Is Your Child Using Drugs? How to Find Out Helping a Child Who is Using Drugs How can I talk to my child about drugs? Get the Conversation Going Help Your Kids Turn Down Drugs Your Preschooler Grades K-3 Grades 4-6 Grades 7-9 Grades 10-12 What you can do. 23 Tips to Keep in Mind and Put to Use Keeping Watch Over Your Child Raising the "Sensation Seeker" Setting Rules for Your Kids What you should know. Answering the Question: "Did you ever use drugs?" Facts Every Parent Should Know Grandparents Hold A Key to Keeping Teens Drug-Free Here it Comes! The Transition to Middle School	Home > Help for Parents Grades 10-12 Talking and making choices about Alcohol, Tobacco, and other drug use are nothing new to teens. Today's teens are savvy about drug use, making distinctions not only among different drugs and their effects, but also among trial, occasional use, and addiction. They witness many of their peers using drugs — some without obvious or immediate consequences, others whose drug use gets out of control. By now, your teen has had to make tough decisions about whether he would give in to peer pressure and experiment with drugs or go against some peers and stay clean. All of these experiences — along with messages from you, teachers, friends, the media, and entertainment sources — have guided your teen toward his or her current attitude about drugs. By age 16, kids' exposure to drugs and their attitudes toward the messages they receive from their parents are fairly firm — but this doesn't mean you should stop talking to your teen about alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. By keeping the conversation going, you'll help your teen enter his adult years healthy and ready to raise the next generation of drug-free kids. A few tips for you and your older teen: Give general messages about drug use the heave-ho —  your older teen needs to hear detailed and reality-driven messages. Topics you might want to talk about with your teen include: that even trying a drug or using it occasionally can have serious permanent consequences, that anyone can become a chronic user or an addict, and the potentially deadly effects of combining drugs. Emphasize what drug use can do to your teen's future. Teens look ahead and think about their future. Discuss how drug use can ruin your teen's chance of getting into the college she's been dreaming about, landing the job she's perfect for, or joining the military and following in her father's footsteps. Encourage your teen to volunteer somewhere they can see the impact drug use has on your community. Teenagers tend to be idealistic and enjoy hearing about ways they can help make the world a better place. Help your teen research volunteer opportunities at local homeless shelters, hospitals, or victim services centers. Use news reports as discussion openers. If you see a news story about an alcohol-related car accident, talk to your teen about all the victims that an accident leaves in its wake. If the story is about drugs in your community, talk about the ways your community has changed as drug use has grown. Compliment and encourage your teen for the all the things he does well and for the positive choices he makes. Let him know that he is seen and appreciated. And let him know how you appreciate what a good role model he is for his younger brother or sister, or for other kids in the community. Teens still care what their parents think. Let him know how deeply disappointed you would be if he started using drugs. What drugs are in the teen's world. Tobacco Alcohol Ritalin Inhalants Marijuana Ecstasy Herbal Ecstasy Cocaine/Crack GHB Heroin Rohypnol Ketamine LSD Mushrooms
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