Federal Anti-Drug Web Site Goes Multilingual

WASHINGTON —  As part of the effort to stem drug and alcohol use among ethnic youth, federal officials have launched a multilingual Web site for parents seeking information on the issue.

The site--https://www.theantidrug.com--is available in Spanish, Cambodian, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. The English version has been online since September.

Although government statistics have found no significant difference in youth drug and alcohol use by race or ethnic group, studies have shown that communicating to ethnic populations in their native languages increases the information’s effectiveness, said Alejandra Castillo, spokeswoman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Parental involvement also has been shown to have an effect on youth drug use.

According to statistics from the White House office, children who learn about risks linked to drugs from their parents are 36% less likely to smoke marijuana than are other young people. In addition, they are 50% less likely to use inhalants, 56% less likely to use cocaine and 65% less likely to use hallucinogenics.

The Web site’s five new versions encourage parents to talk to their children about drugs and alcohol, and they give tips on such matters as setting rules on behavior and establishing curfews to increasing the amount of time a family spends together.

“For kids, they want to be cool, they want to be with their friends, or they want to push the envelope,” said Castillo. “Being able to devise a contra to that [as a parent] is an effort. You need a lot of information. You need to understand the challenges your children are going through.”

To increase the Web site’s visibility, the White House office has joined with other popular Spanish and Asian-language Web sites to include it as a link on their pages, Castillo said.

One Web site section offers role-playing techniques that parents can use to show their children how to react if they are offered drugs or alcohol. Another section helps parents respond to queries about their own drug use by suggesting possible answers.

The Web site allows parents to submit questions or comments to the anti-drug office.

Recognizing that families who recently moved to the United States may now lack the support relatives provided in their homelands, the Web site explains how parents can meet with teachers, doctors and other community members to establish ties.

Creation of the Web site is part of a five-year, $1-billion federal campaign against drug and alcohol use that began in 1998 and targets youths 9 to 18.

For some parents, obtaining information about combating drug and alcohol use can be intimidating, said Lupita Rubalcava, a counselor at D.W. Griffith Middle School in East Los Angeles.

When parents come to her with concerns, she talks to them about the problem or gives them phone numbers to referral organizations. Now, with the multilingual Web site, they can reach such information from their personal computers, she noted.

Parents “need to keep the lines of communication open so when a child goes home and says, ‘Hey, so-and-so [said this],’ the parent can have actual facts,” Rubalcava said. “That way a child doesn’t go to a friend and get the wrong information.”

Parents can reach the Web site’s multilingual versions through the English main page or by adding a backslash to the site’s address and typing “Espanol” or the name of the desired Asian language.