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Adopted children are twice as likely to abuse drugs if their biological parents did too, suggesting that genetics do indeed play a role in the development of substance abuse problems. However, trouble or substance abuse in the adoptive family is also a risk factor, according to a study of more than 18,000 adopted children in Sweden. This suggests that both environment and biological family history can influence a child�s likelihood of future drug use. �For someone at low genetic risk, being in a bad environment conveys only a modestly increased risk of drug abuse,� says lead study author Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., professor of psychiatry and human genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. �But if you are at high genetic risk, this can put your risk for drug abuse much higher.� The findings should be reassuring to adoptive parents, and to people who are thinking about adopting, because they show the importance of a positive environment, experts say. �A child who is adopted, just like a child who is biological, does carry a certain genetic risk but this shows that the environment they�re being raised in and how their genetic risk interacts with that is probably much more important for the potential development of any disease, including substance abuse and dependence,� says Lukshmi Puttanniah, M.D., director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who was not involved with the study. There are a number of things adoptive parents�and biological parents for that matter�can do to minimize the risk of their children experimenting with drugs and alcohol, say experts. �If parents are responsible, are monitoring their children�s behavior, paying attention to them, spending time with them, that�s going to have a positive effect and protect them from going down the path of alcohol and drug abuse,� says Maria M. Wong, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Idaho State University in Pocatello. �Knowing the medical history of children who will be adopted is always a good idea, however�genes are not destiny,� adds Wilson Compton, M.D., director of the division of epidemiology, services, and prevention research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which helped fund the study. �This study shows that in a healthy, safe, and secure environment with little exposure to drug abuse and other problems in the adoptive relatives, even children with multiple drug abusing biological relatives do much better than those whose adoptive families don�t provide such advantages.�