STUDY LINKS TEENS, PARENTS' USE OF DRUGS.

Byline: Keith Stone Daily News Staff Writer

Many teen-agers who know their baby boomer parents had smoked pot as youngsters are likely to use drugs themselves, and many parents say they don't have enough influence to stop them, according to a study released Monday.

The survey from Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse also found that 58 percent of baby boomer parents who have tried marijuana in their youth would consider it a ``crisis'' if their children used the drug before their 16th birthday.

By comparison, 83 percent of parents who had never tried pot said it would be a crisis if their teen-ager experimented with drugs.

``Our survey reveals that many parents seem resigned to their teens' drug use,'' said Joseph Califano, head of the New York City-based institute.

``We are seeing the first group of baby boomer children become teen-agers, and we are seeing a dramatic deterioration in their perception of the dangerousness of pot and other drugs,'' said Califano, a former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

The survey of 1,166 parents born between 1946 and 1964 and 1,200 children between 12 and 17 comes just weeks after one national study and another in California reported that drug use is up dramatically among teen-agers.

Republicans and Democrats immediately seized upon the two earlier studies to blame each other for rising drug use. But Califano said the new survey singles out parents for having failed to impart the proper message to their children.

``We've got to get that benign view of marijuana out of their heads,'' said Califano. ``We know that marijuana savages short-term memory, can savage the ability of a child to maintain an attention span, and it inhibits emotional development.''

Some parents, however, say the survey unfairly depicts the seriousness of teen-agers experimenting with pot, as compared to their dabbling with alcohol and cigarettes.

``Adults who don't find it a crisis have experimented with it in the past and believe it is not as detrimental as the government puts it out to be,'' said 41-year-old Blair Godbout, who has a 17-year-old daughter.

``I have used it in the past, and I do know my daughter has been faced with it, and to be perfectly honest with you - I feel alcohol is much more dangerous to an individual,'' the Valencia man said.

Califano said the study suggests that the children of parents like Godbout are more likely to try drugs than those of parents who have never tried pot.

Yet Godbout said his daughter has told him she will never use drugs. ``And that doesn't come from preaching from me, because I am fairly lenient about marijuana,'' he said. ``She doesn't need to use it to demonstrate her own independence or experimentation or maturity.''

The study's findings include:

Among parents who had used marijuana as teen-agers, 22 percent of their children said they were very likely to use drugs; 21 percent said they were somewhat likely; 29 percent said they were not very likely and 28 percent said it was unlikely.

By contrast, in families in which the parents had not experimented with marijuana, 4 percent of the teens said they were very likely to try drugs; 8 percent said they were somewhat likely; 26 percent said they were not very likely and 62 percent said they would never use drugs.

Sixty-five percent of parents who smoked pot regularly as teen-agers expected that their own children will use drugs, as did 62 percent of those who tried the drug as youngsters. But among parents who never used marijuana, only 29 percent believed their children would use drugs.

In 21 percent of the households, children knew their parent had used pot as a teen; in 42 percent the children knew their parent had not used pot; in 25 percent, the parents had used marijuana, and the child had not been told; and in 10 percent the parent had not used pot but the child believed he or she had done so.

Forty-four percent of parents said society is responsible for drugs in schools; 30 percent said it is students themselves; and 14 percent blamed themselves.