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future unless there is sorne religion.
Perhaps the greater the involvement
in that the better."
Dr. Blum discovered a common
underlying concept among low risk
families, families whose children are
Jess likely to turn to drugs. They
have and teach belief in God. There
is no question about it in their
minds.
It
is to them a fact. God
exists.
In our critica! age, the recognition
of the Creator God of the Bible is
the only thing that makes sense.
Teaching children that the Creator
God exists is the only possible way
to give them purpose and meaning
in life.
Without knowledge and under–
standing that God exists, that he
created this universe and earth for a
purpose, that humankind exists for
DRUG ABUSE ANO THE FAMILV:
30
AN EXPERT'S VIEWS
The following is an
exclusive interview with
Richard H. 81um, Ph.D. ,
director of the Joint
Program in Drugs, Crime,
and Community Studies at
the lnstitute for Public
PolicyAnalysis at
Stanford University. Dr.
81um has served as a
consultant to the National
lnstitute ofMental Health
Center for Studies of
Narcotic and Drug Abuse,
the Law Enforcement
Assistance Administration
of the United States
Department ofJustice,
the National Commission
on Violence, and the
President's Crime
Commission. He is the
author ofa number of
books, the most recent
being Horatio Alger's
Children, a unique study
of drugs and the family.
a reason, and that he will step in
and take control when necessary to
save mankind from himself, life
is futile; existence is reason–
less.
We are not the product of sorne
evolutionary accident. There is a
purpose for life. There is meaning
in
existence. There is more to our
being than just the proverbial three
score and ten years of life.
O
UESTION -
PLAIN TRUTH:
How important a factor is tbe
family
in
predicting wbetber
or not a child turns to drugs?
ANSWER -
BLUM:
As is men–
tioned in
H
o
ratio A lger's Children,
the data indicates that the family is
very strong indeed in playing a de–
termining role in the leve! that the
children engage in drug use.
Q .
How can parents best prevent
their children from taking drugs?
BLUM:
I would not put it that way.
J
think
it
unlikely that parents should
address themselves to the pre–
vention of taking drugs. After all,
aspirin and prescribed antibiotics
are drugs. Wine's a drug. Beer's a
drug. I think that parents should try
to tend to restrict children's drug use
to that which the parents approve
and which by objective standards
can be stated to be reasonably safe.
Now that means that there is no
reason the parents, if they them–
selves approve, should object to
wine or beer, or doctors' pre–
scriptions or what have you, at legal
age, of course.
With that limitation I should say
the mos t important thing that is de–
rived from our. studies is that the
parents have to be, first of all, hon–
est with themselves about what their
child-rearing goals really are. Do
they really want to be liberal and
permissive, which means that they
encourage a child to experiment.
You can't have a hidden clause
which says, "but only experiment in
the way that 1 expect you to."
The second thing is,
if
the parents
PLAIN TRUTH December 1973