Grandparents Join In War Against Drugs

Boston, MA -- In its war against drugs, the government has enlisted drug-sniffing dogs, SWAT teams and the military.

Now it's calling on a potentially more powerful weapon: grandma and grandpa.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy has launched an ad campaign to coax grandparents into talking to their grandchildren about the dangers of drugs. It's part of a larger effort to get adult role models of all sorts to teach kids about the ravages of addiction, AIDS and violence.

"There is an air of honesty that comes through in a relationship between a child and their grandparents," said Leigh Leventhal, spokeswoman for the New York-based Partnership for a Drug-Free America, which is co-sponsoring the campaign.

A nearly full-page advertisement ran this month in The Boston Globe featuring a photo of a young boy looking attentively at an elderly woman, his hand on her shoulder.

"Grandparents are cool. Relaxed," the ad states. "They're not on the firing line everyday. Some days a kid hates his folks. He never hates his grandparents. Grandparents ask direct, point-blank, embarrassing questions you're too nervous to ask."

Leventhal said talk between children and grandchildren about drugs should not be approached as an awkward one-time conversation like the proverbial chat about the birds and the bees. Instead it should be part of an ongoing dialogue about everything in their lives -- hobbies, schoolwork, friends.

Ruth Blackman, a grandmother of six from Boston, said the media program makes sense.

Blackman directs a program that brings grandparents together with children from around the Boston area to provide companionship and positive role models. She said the children, who live in neighborhoods struggling with drugs and violence, rely on their foster grandparents for help and support.

Run by the Action for Boston Community Development, the Foster Grandparent Program has about 120 volunteers who spend about 20 hours per week with children.

"It used to be a grandparent's role was to teach grandkids how to cook and pass on cultural and religious tradition," Blackman said. "Now there's a new responsibility. If you open avenues of communication, you can talk about some very touchy, touchy issues."

The media campaign, launched by the government over the summer, targets children up to high school age, as well as parents and other influential adults. Officials expect the television and newspaper ads to start changing attitudes among young people over the next several years.

"We're trying to get the message to the grandparents just as we're trying to get the message to the parents: Just start talking," said Tom Delaney, director of Boston Alcohol & Substance Abuse Programs Inc. "It's better than passing up the opportunity or just saying nothing."

Copyright 1998 The Standard-Times

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