10 Tips to Prevent Teen Drug/Substance Abuse | Helping Kids Succeed - Yahoo Shine

I was looking for something else and found this article about 10 tips to prevent drug abuse in your kid. Sigh. Most of the 'advice" is just common sense as if all you parents are dopes. "have a conversation not a confrontation..." kind of stuff. "communication is the key.." No its not. Kids aren't communicating with you, they are communicating with their friends and if their friends are doing drugs, you can talk til you are blue in the face and it won't make a wits worth of difference to a kid hanging out with druggies.

They also have you download and sign a contract with your child...we all know that contracts are made to be broken. Any contract is going to insure your child will do what you ask them not to. A family drug policy (as outlined in Sober Coaching Your Teen, Workbook: Managing a drug crisis with your out-of-control Teen)
is the only written agreement that has a chance of making a difference.

Go read the article yourself and ask yourself what might work or what is just fluff to make you thin you are doing something that works. The only "tip" I would say is a good one is number 4:

4. Don't be a parent in denial. There is no teenager that is immune to drug abuse. No matter how smart your teen is, or athletic they are, they are at risk if they start using. I firmly believe that keeping your teen constructively busy, whether it is with sports, music or other hobbies they have, you will be less at risk for them to want to experiment. However don't be in the dark thinking that your teen is pulling a 4.0 GPA and on the varsity football that they couldn't be dragged down by peer pressure. Go back to number one - talk, talk, talk - remind your teen how proud you are of them, and let them know that you are always available if they feel they are being pressured to do or try something they don't want to.

10 Tips to Prevent Teen Drug/Substance Abuse | Helping Kids Succeed - Yahoo Shine:

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