The pediatrician can be useful to the young person with a drug problem if he: (1) is aware of the different motivations for drug abuse by adolescents and how to approach them, (2) recognizes the need for confidentiality, (3) provides factual information in a non-authoritarian manner and listens and counsels as indicated, and (4) manipulates the environment-to relieve school and family pressures and to help youngsters find better challenges. Drug abuse in children and adolescents is a major source of concern to parents, educators, law enforcement agencies, and physicians. For the pediatrician as well as the others, a challenge exists to find more appropriate ways of help for young people who turn to drug abuse for the answer that is not there.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is deeply concerned with the increasing social health problems in today's society, particularly those that relate to the function of the family as a unit and to the behavior of its children and youth. Some of the signs of the serious social, moral, and ethical crisis facing us are: increasing illegitimacy, early marriage, dangerous drug use, rising incidence of venereal disease, family fragmentation manifested in divorce, and lack of restraint within the mass media in presenting sexually stimulating material to young and immature persons. It is the Academy's conviction that all segments of the society of responsible adults, lay and professional, must mobilize now in support of personal and collective action to help children and adolescents grow to a healthy maturity as intellectually, socially, and sexually secure individuals. We join with other national organizations, such as the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, the American Medical Association, the National Education Association, and support the interfaith statement of the nation's major religions in officially supporting health education, including family life and sex education. We urge programs that will create a vigorous and healthy social climate in which family life can flourish and which foster mature sexual behavior in each individual. With this larger goal in mind, we propose and endorse the following general programs and actions. 1. Every concerned adult, lay or professional, must be encouraged to examine his own values and behaviors in order to develop an openness which permits a meaningful rapport with children and youth.