A recent survey has reported that parents who do not monitor their teens properly contribute towards their drug and alcohol abuse. The annual survey from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University says that some parents fail to monitor their young school going children’s activity and do not safeguard prescription drugs, don’t set a good role model for the children leading to drug and alcohol abuse in the children.

The report based its findings from the 13th annual back-to-school survey of teens and parents conducted by Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA).

It suggests that many parents are unaware of their child’s actual whereabouts and what the children do in their free time. Half of the teens surveyed said even on school nights they leave home to be with their friends. 50 % of these who return home after 10 p.m. said they were smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol. A little less than 30 % of the teens who said they came home between 8-10 p.m. said they were drinking or doing drugs, while only 14 % of parents said their teenagers went out on a school night to be with friends.

Elizabeth Planet, CASA's director of special projects said, "Every mother and father should look in the mirror and ask themselves if they are doing the parenting essential to help their child negotiate the difficult teen years free of tobacco, alcohol and drugs,"

The report also highlighted other major findings such as a third of the teens who did drugs said friends got the drugs from their home medicine cabinets while one third said their friends or class fellows could supply them. One out of four teens said that they knew of a class mates parent or friend who smoked marijuana while one in ten said this parent smoked marijuana with teenagers.

Former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare and CASA Chairman Joseph A. Califano Jr. said, "Kids are getting these drugs from their homes or from their friends' homes, but there is a tremendous disconnect or denial among parents about this."

The CASA report was one of two national surveys which tracked behaviors and attitudes about teen drug use and both revealed a lack of consciousness between teen behaviors and parental awareness of those behaviors. Califano Jr. said, “Preventing substance abuse among teens is primarily a mom and pop operation. It is inexcusable that so many parents fail to appropriately monitor their children, fail to keep dangerous prescription drugs out of the reach of their children and tolerate drug infected schools. The parents who smoke marijuana with children should be considered child abusers. By identifying the characteristics of problem parents we seek to identify the actions that parents can take -- and avoid -- in order to become part of the solution and raise healthy, drug-free children."

A majority or 73 % of the children listed school stress as a major reason to turn to drugs while parents gave this only a 7% possibility for their children using drugs.  The survey did confirm a reduction in the children doing drugs but prescription and over-the-counter medication abuse has seen a rise. 41 % of the children in the survey said prescription drugs were safer than illegal drugs, with one out of five admitting to having used them.

Steve Pasierb, President of Partnership for a Drug-Free America said, "Overall, this generation of teenagers is partying less and getting high less, but what they are using and some of the reasons why they are using are very different than in the past. They've heard about OxyContin and Vicodin in the news, and they think they're OK if they don't have these drugs in the house. What they don't understand is that there are 40 or more different prescription drugs that are widely abused."

Children are using that a wide range of prescription drugs and he feels parents should take inventory of the prescription drugs in your home and dispose of old ones, especially sedatives, tranquilizers, pain medications, and attention deficit drugs and lock up any prescription drugs that might be abused. "There are literally millions of prescriptions sitting around on medicine shelves across America that need to be thrown away," Pasierb says.

"Ask your kids what they think of Heath Ledger dying and then really listen to what they say," he says. "Conversations like that will make the difference. It isn't about having the big scary drug conversation. It's about a lot of smaller conversations that aren't so scary.” He is referring to the death of 28-year-old actor Heath Ledger in January. The star of the popular Batman movie The Dark Knight raised awareness about prescription drug abuse bringing to the forefront the fact that they can be as deadly as any drug.