At the average high school in America, 10% of the student body is chemically dependent and on a self destructive course to kill themselves. If we do nothing else with our drug prevention programs, we must find those students and intervene in their lives.

In 1984, at the end of the first year of Mike's prevention program, he made a statement to students, parents and educators about how he felt about drug prevention. Mike said, "I will never go away. This is my life long commitment..." and he is still working hard in the field.

The Problem...Student drug use is not going down and it is never going to go away. At this time, it is still in epidemic proportions. Each year the statistics are alarming to look at.

There are large numbers of youth who are heavily involved in the use of alcohol and other drugs. If we deny that the problem exists and we turn our backs and do nothing to prevent the use of drugs and alcohol by our young people, we are in danger of losing scores of them to dependency...and even death.

As a parent, you need to attack this problem before it attacks you. When I speak to parent groups, I always ask them to make at least a minimum commitment...and part of that commitment includes talking to your teenager once a week on the dangers of using alcohol and other drugs.

I believe there are five things that you should do as a parent in this minimum commitment. If you want to know the five suggestions, email me and I will send them to you.