Ya know, there is another side to this for the parents; something a bit deeper. I'll try to state plainly what I and others have, I think, pawed at here.
These parents (these in particular, maybe,
certainly a good many in the industry) seem to be irrationally afraid of the world at large. My dad never did enjoy the Program. He thought Art Barker was a pompous ass, refered to him as "The Professional Alcoholic" and such. Certainly didn't enjoy taking direction and personal questions from some 16yo punk who was on staff at the time.
BUT (big but) he believed, as a lot of WWII era fathers believed, that one toke off a joint would set us all on an inexorable path to junkiedome and joining the Manson Family and hacking up our families.
Of course, that wasn't true then and it isn't true now. But he
believed it enough and loved us enough to eat shit on a regular basis for 10 years. What changed his mind? I, the youngest, came of age, escaped the influence of the program and failed to fail. Not that my life was exemplary. I struggled, financially, socially... every way imaginable. But I still managed to feed and cloth my daughter, pay my bills and not turn into this evil junkie monster he'd been afraid of. So we got on fine after we sorted that out a year or two after the Program.
My mom, on the other hand, she LOVED the Program. She still believes, to this day that since I split the program and never have gone back, that I must be a junkie by now. I must be just very good at hiding it, you see. But the Program said it, she believes it, that settles it.
I certainly hope Alex's parents come around. The world is, as Julie says, no better or worse than it was in our day. These kids are just as highly evolved and well equipped to deal with it as they ever were. And these hucksters who promise the wonder cure for the non-existant problem are just that, hucksters and snake oil salesmen. Like most con men, they buy into their own bullshit more than anybody else does. But just cause
they believe what they're selling doesn't make it true. Who ya gonna believe, anyway, the Program salesman or your own lyin eyes?
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense
--Buddha