The latest survey of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University should trigger sign alarms among parents, as it shows that more youngsters find it easier to get their hands on prescription drugs, much easier than acquiring a bottle of beer. Their percentage rises to 90 percent in contract with 13 percent last year.

The main source of drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin and Ritalin is “the medicine cabinet,” (34 percent) according to Elizabeth Planet, director of special projects for CASA who coordinated the survey. However, “another source of these drugs is their friends.”

These prescription drugs are often detrimental to the brain of teenagers, which is still in the development stage (Vicodin). However, they may also cause accidents, sexual activities and pushes teenagers to addiction.

But this is not the only negative issue found by the survey. Almost 50 percent of the respondents said they leave their house on school nights to hang out with friends. Of those coming home after 8 p.m., 29 percent said they occasionally drink alcohol, smoke marijuana or use other drugs. Of those coming home after 10 p.m., 50 percent said they usually consume alcohol, marijuana and other drugs. Surprisingly was the fact that only 14 percent of the 312 parents surveyed said their kids usually leave the house on school nights.

“It’s inexcusable that so many parents fail to appropriately monitor their children. Problem parents are a big part of why so many teens smoke, drink, get drunk and abuse illegal and prescription drugs. When parents are not part of the solution, they become part of the problem,” Joseph A. Califano Jr., CASA’s chairman and former US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare said about the findings.

He further encouraged families to have dinner as often as they can saying that 23 percent of teens who ate fewer than three dinners a week with their family had used marijuana, compared with 10 percent when the family ate together five times or more times a week.

Another worrisome finding of the survey was that many teenagers can easily obtain marijuana, with 23 percent saying they can buy it within an hour and 42 percent saying it would only take a day.

But things get even crazier when it comes to marijuana. Fifty percent of the teenagers said smoking marijuana is more common today than smoking cigarettes.

Given these findings, it seems like parenting is no easy task nowadays. But researchers involved in the survey said this is not an excuse for not being there when your kids need you. Sometimes, spending more time with them or even listening to what they’re saying is more than enough. Be open to your kids and try to make them realize what is dangerous to their health even if this requires rules they disapprove of. Surely, they will thank you later for being there when needed.

Moreover, CASA Web site, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Youth Anti-Drug media campaign are offering a helping hand to all parents who feel like they’re overwhelmed.

The survey was based on the answers of 1,002 teenagers 12 to 17-year olds and 312 of their parents.