Teenager Smoking pot

[Anonymous]

I meant showing them Reefer Madness.

[Anonymous]

I would deal with the lying first and then the pot. It's really not ok for him to lie about this sort of thing to you and you need to make that very clear. Teenagers like to rebel (obviously you know this!) and immediately grounding/punishing him and forbidding him to see his friends will probably be bad and cause his grades to drop more. Have a talk and then proceed from there.

Honestly, I know for a fact that both of my teenagers (now in college) tried pot while in high school, but the situation was different. They smoked once or twice at a friends house and never bought any themselves. It was the middle of summer too. When I asked them about it the confessed and were generally honest about the whole thing, so there was some no phone time and then we moved on. We were all in high school once too...

[Anonymous]

Call the other kids' parents. Tell them your kid is using, buying and maybe selling pot. I would want to know if it was my kid. As for the dealer, turn him, just of doing business. Maybe the word would get out that selling to your kid = cops.

[Anonymous]

I'm not going to read through this whole thread. But lots of kids smoke weed and end up going to great colleges and being super successful. I went to a highly competitive public HS and liberal arts college, smoked a fair amount in HS and decreased as I grew out of it and became interested in other things. Sure it has the potential to be a gateway drug. But it is not necessarily a huge issue.

[Anonymous]

ok, hi, first of all, you have to understand something, alcohol is also a drug, and it is much worst than marijuana, the only difference is that alcohol is legal, of course, not at his age, but still. He also can be drinking and stuff, and he probably will. Marijuana use does not always make you go out and become a heroine addict. It all depends on the persone and their need to maybe do something exciting and ilegal. Marijuana will actually do less harm than alcochol or cigarettes. The problem is like I said that it is ilegal and people make such a big deal out of it, therefore making it more ecxiting and wantable. So, maybe you should talk to your kid about this as well, be open. It is a drug, so just like any other drug, (medicine, alcohol, tabacco, etc) it should not be abused. Your conversation with him has to be very open, ask him what it is that he likes about it, ask him how many times he has done it and what he thinks the consecuences might be if he gets caught. He has to understand why it is not ok for him to be doing that; and why you are concerned about it. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

The main reason why alcohol I legal and pot isn't is because of HOW it effects the brain. For example, most people(this is excluding a few very intolerant body types) can have a single drink and not be drunk. It is impossible to have a time of weed and not be high.

I know what you potheads are goin to say "I don't get high from one toke". This is because you've had so much that you've chemically altered the release of dopamine in your brain. Dopamine is a naturally occurring chemical that controls how you process pain. Essentially what happens is the THC causes your brain to release more dopamine than it should. Which causes a dulling of your senses. After a long period of use your brain starts releasing a lot more than it should but you feel as if you've created a "tolerance " for the THC. Now you feel like you need MORE weed to get the same level of high that you felt when you first started.

This is one of the key reasons why weed is considered a gateway drug.

This information is easily found. I've summarized it and broken it down very simply but the effects are actually anything but simple.

No one is saying that alcohol is better but there is a reason why it's legal and weed is not. That said, I do agree with legalization because doing so would make it track able. There would be regulations and you could be sure it's not cut with a harder drug.

Again, that said, I can't believe how many of you are okay with the OP allowing a drug dealer to walk free. That dealer is an adult and should understand the consequences of his actions. He's not selling to HIS peers. Individuals who are less likely to decide out of his favor. No he's selling to a impressionable child who only wants to fit in. This person is likely the same person who will contact his child buyers and say "well if you liked that why not try..." and then the egging on begins. It's much harder to understand the far reaching consequences at 15 than it is at 21 even. Dealers are like pimps. They seek weaker and uneducated, impressionable victims who don't have the ability to reason like an adult.

Consider that when you think it's "none of the OP's business". We as a society need to be more proactive and responsible about how we collectively raise our young people because unfortunately mom and dad aren't the only role models in a child's life. That means we all have a bit part to play on any child's stage of life. How we play those parts as individuals will help mold the next generation of society as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for typos

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an ongoing pothead (once every 3 weeks or so) and even I think this is crazy: the dealer sold to a FIFTEEN YEAR OLD. Bust him!

If you have children, I hope you get busted. It is not all right to take/smoke dope when you have children

Alcohol is far more destructive and insidious than pot. Should we reinstate prohibition? Or arrest parents who attend cocktail parties?

Alcohol is legal, pot is not. You cannot justify using an illegal substance no matter how made you try.

Agreed: Legalize pot now. Stop wasting tax money to jail marijuana users and dealers. Make American-grown pot safe and legal for over 21s. Stop steering billions into the hands of Mexican drug gangs that are endangering our national security.

Front page of yesterday's (8/28) Washington Post below the fold under "In the News:"
"Science
teenagers who routinely smoke marijuana risk long-term drop in their IQ, a new study suggested."

[Anonymous]

There are many good reasons not to smoke pot:
the illegality, supporting Mexican drug cartels that have basically destroyed Mexico, the fact that drug dealers use elementary school kids as runners, the addiction potential, the fact that people who smoke pot get behind the wheels of cars, the recent study on IQ effects of pot use, the link between pot use and mental illness etc.

The thing that I think would be most resonant for the Type A parents of DC, though, is the fact that pot often saps people's ambition. Sure, there are productive people who use it, but on average, pot users are couch surfers. The stoners at my high school tended to work at the pizza parlor. When I was in my second year of a PhD program, I went to that pizza parlor, and there they still were. Honest work, sure but it won't pay a Fairfax County mortgage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are many good reasons not to smoke pot:
the illegality, supporting Mexican drug cartels that have basically destroyed Mexico, the fact that drug dealers use elementary school kids as runners, the addiction potential, the fact that people who smoke pot get behind the wheels of cars, the recent study on IQ effects of pot use, the link between pot use and mental illness etc.

The thing that I think would be most resonant for the Type A parents of DC, though, is the fact that pot often saps people's ambition. Sure, there are productive people who use it, but on average, pot users are couch surfers. The stoners at my high school tended to work at the pizza parlor. When I was in my second year of a PhD program, I went to that pizza parlor, and there they still were. Honest work, sure but it won't pay a Fairfax County mortgage.

^ all true, but you're going to tell a stoner teenager that? Don't smoke pot then youy can pay your Fairfax mortgage someday? I'm not even a stoner and that sounds ridiculous to me.

[Anonymous]

Tell them to just say no

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are many good reasons not to smoke pot:
the illegality, supporting Mexican drug cartels that have basically destroyed Mexico, the fact that drug dealers use elementary school kids as runners, the addiction potential, the fact that people who smoke pot get behind the wheels of cars, the recent study on IQ effects of pot use, the link between pot use and mental illness etc.

The thing that I think would be most resonant for the Type A parents of DC, though, is the fact that pot often saps people's ambition. Sure, there are productive people who use it, but on average, pot users are couch surfers. The stoners at my high school tended to work at the pizza parlor. When I was in my second year of a PhD program, I went to that pizza parlor, and there they still were. Honest work, sure but it won't pay a Fairfax County mortgage.

^ all true, but you're going to tell a stoner teenager that? Don't smoke pot then youy can pay your Fairfax mortgage someday? I'm not even a stoner and that sounds ridiculous to me.

No, certainly that won't resonate for the average kid. I'm offering this argument because I find the complacency of the parents to be puzzling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are many good reasons not to smoke pot:
the illegality, supporting Mexican drug cartels that have basically destroyed Mexico, the fact that drug dealers use elementary school kids as runners, the addiction potential, the fact that people who smoke pot get behind the wheels of cars, the recent study on IQ effects of pot use, the link between pot use and mental illness etc.

The thing that I think would be most resonant for the Type A parents of DC, though, is the fact that pot often saps people's ambition. Sure, there are productive people who use it, but on average, pot users are couch surfers. The stoners at my high school tended to work at the pizza parlor. When I was in my second year of a PhD program, I went to that pizza parlor, and there they still were. Honest work, sure but it won't pay a Fairfax County mortgage.

^ all true, but you're going to tell a stoner teenager that? Don't smoke pot then youy can pay your Fairfax mortgage someday? I'm not even a stoner and that sounds ridiculous to me.

No, certainly that won't resonate for the average kid. I'm offering this argument because I find the complacency of the parents to be puzzling.

Looking through old pot threads on here because we've given up and at a loss. The grades thing doesn't work either because DC's grades and test scores haven't slipped and are pretty top notch. How am I going to use even the FFX mortgage argument when DC will get into a much better school/college than either place I or DH went to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are many good reasons not to smoke pot:
the illegality, supporting Mexican drug cartels that have basically destroyed Mexico, the fact that drug dealers use elementary school kids as runners, the addiction potential, the fact that people who smoke pot get behind the wheels of cars, the recent study on IQ effects of pot use, the link between pot use and mental illness etc.

The thing that I think would be most resonant for the Type A parents of DC, though, is the fact that pot often saps people's ambition. Sure, there are productive people who use it, but on average, pot users are couch surfers. The stoners at my high school tended to work at the pizza parlor. When I was in my second year of a PhD program, I went to that pizza parlor, and there they still were. Honest work, sure but it won't pay a Fairfax County mortgage.

^ all true, but you're going to tell a stoner teenager that? Don't smoke pot then youy can pay your Fairfax mortgage someday? I'm not even a stoner and that sounds ridiculous to me.

No, certainly that won't resonate for the average kid. I'm offering this argument because I find the complacency of the parents to be puzzling.

Looking through old pot threads on here because we've given up and at a loss. The grades thing doesn't work either because DC's grades and test scores haven't slipped and are pretty top notch. How am I going to use even the FFX mortgage argument when DC will get into a much better school/college than either place I or DH went to?

You might consider an entirely new strategy. I say this as a parent who hates the idea of my teen smoking pot and who would never give permission. I don't think you give permission but you do set ground rules, knowing that ultimately you can't stop this. Ground rules have to do with safety -- no driving while high or getting into the car of someone who is high, no getting high in a place like school grounds or public property where he could get in trouble with the law, no getting high at home, and no letting grades slip. In other words, he's going to have to exercise his own judgment and if that means getting high in his friend's basement during a sleepover, you aren't going to stop him. But you do expect him to be responsible in every other way and if he isn't, you will ground him, and then do it. I am suggesting this because its become a power struggle and you can't win and because if he does follow all these rules, he will probably be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are many good reasons not to smoke pot:
the illegality, supporting Mexican drug cartels that have basically destroyed Mexico, the fact that drug dealers use elementary school kids as runners, the addiction potential, the fact that people who smoke pot get behind the wheels of cars, the recent study on IQ effects of pot use, the link between pot use and mental illness etc.

The thing that I think would be most resonant for the Type A parents of DC, though, is the fact that pot often saps people's ambition. Sure, there are productive people who use it, but on average, pot users are couch surfers. The stoners at my high school tended to work at the pizza parlor. When I was in my second year of a PhD program, I went to that pizza parlor, and there they still were. Honest work, sure but it won't pay a Fairfax County mortgage.

^ all true, but you're going to tell a stoner teenager that? Don't smoke pot then youy can pay your Fairfax mortgage someday? I'm not even a stoner and that sounds ridiculous to me.

No, certainly that won't resonate for the average kid. I'm offering this argument because I find the complacency of the parents to be puzzling.

Looking through old pot threads on here because we've given up and at a loss. The grades thing doesn't work either because DC's grades and test scores haven't slipped and are pretty top notch. How am I going to use even the FFX mortgage argument when DC will get into a much better school/college than either place I or DH went to?

You might consider an entirely new strategy. I say this as a parent who hates the idea of my teen smoking pot and who would never give permission. I don't think you give permission but you do set ground rules, knowing that ultimately you can't stop this. Ground rules have to do with safety -- no driving while high or getting into the car of someone who is high, no getting high in a place like school grounds or public property where he could get in trouble with the law, no getting high at home, and no letting grades slip. In other words, he's going to have to exercise his own judgment and if that means getting high in his friend's basement during a sleepover, you aren't going to stop him. But you do expect him to be responsible in every other way and if he isn't, you will ground him, and then do it. I am suggesting this because its become a power struggle and you can't win and because if he does follow all these rules, he will probably be fine.

PP here. Thanks for the response. She is a great kid who has always been pretty well behaved except for the pot thing. It started in 10th grade intermittently but it wasn't too bad. But this past year, it has been terrible as in use atleast every other day before or after dinner, brazenly smoking while doing calculus home work, studying or writing a paper. I worry if she gets in early decision next year to wherever she wants to go to school she'll just get high every waking moment and be a 'high functioning stoner' for the rest of the year.

She has zero interest in getting her license so driving/high thing isn't an issue and DH doesnt agree with me in the 'no pot in the house rule' as he feels if she is going to smoke, let her do it in the house rather than outside the house.

I actually don't think she gets high that much outside of the house to be honest, but at home it is out of control.