A Partnership for a Drug-Free America survey finds that fewer parent-teen discussions about the dangers of alcohol and other drugs are taking place, a trend that PDFA described as "alarming."

PDFA said that parental awareness of problems like prescription-drug abuse is growing, but that hasn't translated into more family sit-downs to discuss drug issues. PDFA's 19th annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) found that the number of parents who held four or more discussions about alcohol and other drugs declined 12 percent between 2005 and 2006.

About half of parent say they have frequent discussions about alcohol and other drugs or have in-depth conversations about use of substances like heroin, cocaine, and crack, while only about one-third said they spoke to their children about prescription-drug or over-the-counter drug abuse.

"Right now in the U.S., there are 32 million families with children at risk of abusing drugs and alcohol," said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of PDFA. "The results from this year's survey reveal a critical need to better support, educate, empower and truly help parents feel more prepared and comfortable discussing the current drug issues this generation of kids is facing.

"The most recent PATS findings show many parents wrongly perceive the abuse of these drugs to somehow be safer than the use of illegal street drugs," he added. "Parents need the facts, to understand how things have changed, and the dangers of intentional Rx/OTC drug abuse must be at the forefront of the discussions with their kids."