WASHINGTON -- A new White House report out Wednesday has mixed news on drug use among teens.

While fewer teens are using illegal drugs, it said even marijuana use can lead young people down a path toward violence, delinquency and gang involvement.

John Walters, the director of National Drug Control Policy, said marijuana use increases the risk a child will become involved in gang activity fourfold. He also said the age at which children are first introduced to the drug is getting younger, sometimes as early as 11 years old.

The drug czar said marijuana use and drinking are "blind spots" in the public's attitudes toward illegal drug use. He said alcohol and marijuana are often regarded as "soft" drugs in comparison to others like heroin, crack cocaine and meth.

He said that's a mistake, because young people are "at a stage where they are trying to deal with the feelings of adults versus the feelings and impulses of children." When drugs impair judgment, he said, the result is erratic and out of control behavior.

"It is time — in fact, it is past time — for us to let go of '60s-era perceptions about marijuana," Walters said. "Today's research shows what too many families and communities have had to learn through painful experience: Drug use by teenagers isn't a 'lifestyle choice' or an act of 'personal expression;' it is a public health, and, increasingly, a public safety dilemma."

The report also shows that parents remain the most powerful influence on their kids when it comes to illicit drugs. The majority of teens said the main reason they don't use drugs is fear of upsetting their parents or losing their respect.