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• Teens Cite Ease of Access To Drugs  

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University asked: "Which is easiest for someone your age to buy: cigarettes, beer, marijuana, or prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin or Ritalin, without a prescription?" Nineteen percent of teenagers found it easier to purchase prescription drugs than cigarettes, beer or marijuana, compared with 13 percent a year ago. A quarter of the teens said it is easiest to buy marijuana, with 43 percent of 17-year-olds saying they could buy the drug in less than an hour. . . .

The correlation between allowing teens out late on school nights and the likelihood that people in their presence would be smoking and drinking was dramatic. Half of all teenagers allowed out after 10 p.m. said that they spent time with people smoking and using drugs, while 29 percent of those who returned home between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. reported the same behavior.

Califano recommended family dinners as a simple way of decreasing the chances of drug abuse

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