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Teen drug use is a serious concern for parents. It's the kind of struggle that oftentimes does not go away, even after successful rehabilitation. The effect of teen drug addiction has been extensively studied and documented but the bottomline is that drug addiction somehow rewires the brain to make you believe that you need the drugs to feel better and (in extreme cases) to survive.

Like most addictions, drug abuse starts with something that seems so harmless, like smoking pot. Young people often do it because it seems hip and cool, and many other young people manage to sneak a smoke behind their parents' backs. However, trying mild drugs almost always paves the way for a stronger hit, a higher high, thus the eventual need for harder drugs or experimenting with illegal use of prescription drugs.

In terms of thinking about effective punishment for teens caught doing drugs, it's important to note that punishment is most effective when a positive bond already exists between parents and children. In other words, parents must be consistently upholding rules and consequences at home but are also investing a lot of time to have positive interactions with their children. An imbalance in the relationship leads to punishments enforced by parents being ineffective, even if they are consistently enforced.

Here are a few parenting tips for people who catches their teens doing drugs:

• Reiterate the rules - Wait for your child's head to clear (don't talk to them while they are high) and talk to them, reiterating that you will not tolerate drug use and do not want them to associate with people who use drugs. Make it unequivocally clear that it's something unacceptable for you. If you find drugs in your teen's room or belongings, make it clear that you will still hold them accountable even if they claim it is not theirs. Make it clear that you have zero tolerance for drug use or hanging out with people who use drugs.
• Take away privileges - There's always something important for each child. At the early stages of teen drug experimentation, taking away privileges still work so it's best to take advantage of this while it's still effective in order to nip the habit in the bud. Take away phone privileges, prohibit use of TV, internet, radio, video games, impose an earlier curfew and others. If a teen has been consistently breaking rules after the punishment period has stopped, consider increasing the length of time you take away the privileges or taking away other things that might be more important to them.
• Call the parents of your child's drug-using friends - If you catch your teen in the act of doing drugs or if you've pinpointed that he's getting drugs from some friends, calling the parents of these friends send a strong message to your child that you are serious about this issue. This will alert the other parents (if they haven't been alerted already) of their children's activities, help enlist their support in keeping your child out of trouble too, and discourages your teens to further push the envelope.

It's also important to find out what brought about drug use in your teen's life. If this is something that is totally out of character for your child, it's worth considering that something happened in his/her life for him/her to drastically change and break character this way. Many young people turn to drugs and alcohol to drown their emotional pain. Talk to your child, give him/her a lot of opportunities to feel safe enough to open up to you regarding what could have brought about this change in his/her life.

It's important to tell your child about the dangers of drug addiction, but it's even more important to listen and be sensitive to what they're not saying with their words. It's also very important to keep an eye out for good behavior and reward this accordingly. Catch your child while in the act of doing something good and make sure he/she knows that you notice these things.

For teens who are past the stage of experimentation, it may be helpful to consider sending them to places that help troubled teens like wilderness therapy schools/camps or therapeutic boarding schools. These places will make sure that drugs are not accessible to your child, and that they receive the kind of therapy that they need to beat the addiction. Keep in mind though that these places don't usually accept teens with severe drug addiction problems so it's best to consider this as an early intervention.