The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of two variables, parental drug use and parental attitude toward adolescent drug use, both as perceived by the adolescent respondent to his or her own use or nonuse of drugs. A sample of 106 drug-using and 96 nondrug-using adolescents was obtained through the use of the anthropological " snowball " technique. All respondents were administered a drug use history profile and a personal data questionnaire. In order to be classed as drug users, respondents had to have been using two or more recreational substances on a regular basis. Nondrug users were those who used no recreational drugs, although individuals who had tried alcohol or tobacco experimentally were included in this group. On the personal data form, respondents were asked to describe their parents' use of alcohol, tobacco, or other substances, and to indicate their parents' attitudes concerning adolescent use of drugs. Parental attitudes were classed as permissive if the respondent indicated that parents were indifferent about drug use, if they accepted a certain range of drugs, or if the decision were left up to the youth. A nonpermissive attitude was defined as one which would not accept drug use by the adolescent. Four 2 x 2 Chi-square analyses were used to determine significance of the relationship between adolescent drug use and parents' use or nonuse of drugs, parents' attitudes about adolescent use or nonuse and actual adolescent use or non-use, and this same attitudinal relationship looking at parent users and nonusers separately.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)