<p>
His mom. They are very worried about the fact that these kids aren’t really his friends. Which is concerning, of course, but that’s all they seem to be focusing on.</p>
<p>I’ll tell you what. You’ve all given me a lot to think about. I’m not sure why I worry more about my son, but it’s probably because he is so flaky and his sisters were not. He really would buy a bridge.</p>
<p>In case people are interested about marijuana use in Washington state.
[General</a> Frequently Asked Questions :: Washington State Dept. of Health](<a href=“http://www.doh.wa.gov/YouandYourFamily/IllnessandDisease/MedicalMarijuanaCannabis/GeneralFrequentlyAskedQuestions.aspx]General”>http://www.doh.wa.gov/YouandYourFamily/IllnessandDisease/MedicalMarijuanaCannabis/GeneralFrequentlyAskedQuestions.aspx)
And in Seattle.
[Marijwhatnow</a>? A Guide to Legal Marijuana Use In Seattle | SPD Blotter](<a href=“http://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2012/11/09/marijwhatnow-a-guide-to-legal-marijuana-use-in-seattle/]Marijwhatnow”>Marijwhatnow? A Guide to Legal Marijuana Use In Seattle - SPD Blotter)
I disagree that adults that use marijuana are generally using other illegal drugs as well.
( teens however put misc crap in their bodies every day, otherwise fast food & energy drinks would not be so popular)
Marijuana is quite unlike crack,meth,heroin, cocaine and anything else I can think of.
Meth users don’t really strike me as " sociable" :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Its true that much marijuana probably has more THC or CBDs than what most people were using in the 1970’s, but it is also true that you cannot die from a overdose of marijuana.
Not a good idea to use any mind altering substance when operating machinery however.</p>
<p>When I was about 20, I smoked it occasionally to be " sociable". I didn’t care for it, because it was high in THC which gives you a " head" high. 
I started using it again 33 years later to treat fibromyalgia & severe osteoarthritis.
If you had asked me five years ago if I would ever use marijuana again, I would have told you " no f___ngway". But two years later I was in so much pain, I seriously considered heroin or opium, if I had only any idea of where to find it.
I was under the care of a rheumatologist, but side effects of prescription medications to ease pain & help me sleep were also severe. I found that by using marijuana that was low in THC but high in CBDs I could lower the dose of my prescription medication and sleep.
[A</a> New Marijuana Plant Without the High? It Could Be Good Medicine | TIME.com](<a href=“http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/04/a-new-marijuana-plant-without-the-high-it-could-be-good-medicine/]A”>A New Marijuana Plant Without the High? It Could Be Good Medicine | TIME.com) Medical marijuana was legal when I began using it again.
I rarely smoke it, I buy canna butter and make edibles.
It is very effective & long lasting. I am not " stoned", I use just enough to relieve pain, and now that I am sleeping at night, I need very little pain relief during the day - oftentimes I can get by with aspirin or tylenol.</p>
<p>My kids generally did not use alcohol or drugs while they were in high school.
I did not say " never", but I always knew where they were, & I usually had both driven them there & picked them up. (& 95% of the time it was for a sports/school/volunteer/ job related activity.)
It would have been legal for me to allow my minor children to drink alcohol at home, I never did this however & would not have been comfortable with it.</p>
<p>It seems that perhaps these parents are thinking of pot in that classification, allowing that it less harnful than alcohol, but they are not considering all the ramifications of their son using marijuana as a minor & sharing it with his friends.
( and- If the parents dont think these kids are his “friends”, they may be right. These friends are likely taking advantage of him and probably even egging him on)</p>
<p>I think getting them to expand their mind 
on this subject will require acknowledging many people have voted for its legalization and even the federal government has said they will not interfere with states where it has been legalized.
But.
If their son is under 21, it isnt legal for him to obtain it or use it anywhere in the US, and since one incident which could have been much worse has already occurred, it is only a matter of time before another incident takes place.
This will probably have more to do with the poor judgement of adolescents, but being exacerbated by substances- & if he also is using alcohol as well, which takes away judgement & inhibitions, real tragedy could occur.
They need to impress upon him that use of substances as a minor is rarely a good idea.
[The</a> Influence of Substance Use on Adolescent Brain Development](<a href=“http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2827693/]The”>The Influence of Substance Use on Adolescent Brain Development - PMC)</p>
<p>(Speaking to the boy)
</p>
<p>Why would the mom want your D to speak to him rather than speaking to him herself? She shouldn’t be imposing on your D like that - it’s the parents who apparently have fostered and enabled the kid’s behavior and now they’re looking to someone else to solve the mess they’ve created?</p>
<p>DocT:
Okay - you’re bringing up a completely different topic on the thread. I agree there are lots of substances that people abuse, including those made legally by drug companies although with the drugs often used illegally (and paint companies, and any aerosol can manufacturing company, and computer screen wipe manufacturers, etc.) but the thread is pretty focused on this pot use and my points are all valid regarding the topic at hand.</p>
<p>
She thought he might open up to my D, who is 8 years older and used to be his babysitter back in the dark ages. The parents’ real concern is that he will be lonely. My D’s real concerns are that he will either get arrested (it’s a very near thing that they didn’t. An innocent person was slightly injured by their behavior, but was content to scream at him because his friends pretended not to know him) or that he will do something that gets him killed.</p>
<p>“If this kid has enough to be giving it to his friends frequently, then he probably has enough to be charged with dealing whether he is charging anyone for it or not. That is not something to mess with.”</p>
<p>Bottom line. It really doesn’t matter if the pot is harmless or dangerous in and of itself. The law makes it very dangerous for this kid’s future.</p>
<p>When one of these “friends” comes home high and tells his angry parents where he got the pot, young cousin is going to be in a world of hurt.</p>
<p>His parents give him a staggeringly large allowance, in the hundreds of dollars a week, so I suspect (although I don’t know) the amount purchased could be enough to be problematic.</p>
<p>His parents give him a staggeringly large allowance, in the hundreds of dollars a week, so I suspect (although I don’t know) the amount purchased could be enough to be problematic.
Are you kidding?
In that case, they are lucky he is not buying something much flashier.
:rolleyes:
( I have no idea what street prices are. Medical marijuana is generally $10 -$12 a gram. Several hundred dollars a week would be enough to keep the entire senior class high )
I think it was reasonable to approach his cousin, she is old enough to be able to decide if she wants to enter into the situation, and she may be able to get through to him, where his parents can’t.
By approaching your D, zoosermom, it sounds like perhaps the parents are much more concerned than they are letting on.</p>
<p>They approached her about his friends’ lack of loyalty to see if was aware of it, was depressed, etc. and the conversation progressed. The mom told me the details of what’s been going on. I guess she is concerned, I mean of course she is. But both parents are in denial about the possibility that he could be arrested or harmed.</p>
<p>Maybe you could point out some realities to them? I have no understanding of parents who smoke pot with their underage children. And I can’t believe they give him so much money, knowing what he is doing with it. </p>
<p>I don’t think it was right to ask your D to deal with him. It’s not fair to put her in the middle of a serious situation that could end very badly, leaving her feeling guilty. And it’s not clear that she can even talk to him effectively from 3000 miles away. </p>
<p>Let’s hope this kid has a very good guardian angel. His parents have completely fallen down on the job.</p>
<p>I don’t think zoosers D is in the “middle”, unless she was perhaps a law enforcement officer and if he is 16, then she is 24,? plenty old enough to decide for herself if she wants to counsel or confront him.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize they weren’t in the same proximity though, although for that generation, they probably are just as comfortable texting or skyping.</p>
<p>
It sounds as if your D, in comparison to the parents, has by far the more mature and practical view of this - but I hope she doesn’t get too drawn in unless she wants to - she shouldn’t have to deal with parenting issues these parents are incapable of.</p>
<p>I think that it’s good of you to be concerned, but if the parents support the smoking they are going to have to change their minds first, I suspect.</p>
<p>“His parents give him a staggeringly large allowance, in the hundreds of dollars a week” Unreal. I would be concerned about drug testing for a job, but who needs a job with that kind of support?</p>
<p>The boy is only just fifteen, so he doesn’t work yet. I know the mom will call me again which is why I wanted to have some insight from cc. I needed a reality check too.</p>
<p>I don’t think this has been mentioned -but another issue is that dealers will lace the pot with stronger drugs to move the kids “up” and create dependence. Some argue that pot is not a drug that creates dependency. Not trying to debate that - but note that just cause you think you are only buying pot doesn’t mean that’s all you are getting.</p>
<p>The Black Keys song “Ten Cent Pistol” is just that - drug dealers who kill off addicts who aren’t paying by lacing a ten cent buy of something (coke, etc) with something that can kill. It’s chalked up to an overdose.</p>
<p>Gladgraddad:</p>
<p>“DocT:
Okay - you’re bringing up a completely different topic on the thread. I agree there are lots of substances that people abuse, including those made legally by drug companies although with the drugs often used illegally (and paint companies, and any aerosol can manufacturing company”</p>
<p>This is not what I’m talking about. I’m pointing out that many kids are using much more than pot even if parents don’t think they are. I doubt that many parents on this site are aware of the range of stuff that kids can get their hands on that didn’t even exist last year and the DEA is incapable of stopping it. I’m not talking about abusing medications made by big pharma when I’m talking about “legal drugs”.</p>
<p>Zoosermom,</p>
<p>While I’ve known classmates in HS and moreso, undergrad(including topflight honor students) who used pot and had successful lives, they were the recreational once every few weeks/month users. NOT every day or even a few times a week. </p>
<p>The latter are more reminiscent of the hardcore stoners at my LAC where pot was my college’s vice of choice judging by the smell and prevalence of open users. </p>
<p>IME, they were better to live around than those who binged on alcohol because the hardcore stoners tended to be so mellow and passive from delta THC’s effects that they weren’t aggressive or otherwise got in your way. </p>
<p>Only bad things I recalled were that their grades suffered heavily even with my and several other classmates providing them with copies of our class notes because they could never get around to coming to class or completing/turning in much work to do ok or even pass and they can be quite flaky unless you literally dragged them out of their/their friends’ dorm rooms or hangouts to the meeting/activity they previously agreed to attend. Many flunked out, suspended, took LOAs, and/or barely made it to graduation with exceedingly mediocre GPAs(talking 1.7+ - low-2.x here). </p>
<p>In short, in addition to being concerned about legal ramifications is also the possibility the heavy use is habituating your nephew into becoming flaky which won’t help him in high school, college admissions, or holding down any sort of job on a regular basis.</p>
<p>Personally, I never did any sort of drugs or much alcohol(everyone thought I was a teetotaler) in K-undergrad. Growing up in what was a working-class NYC neighborhood where discarded needles, crack vials, and decrepit creepy junkies were common at the local park; having an elementary school classmate getting caught in a crossfire between drug gangs while walking home from his middle school; and hearing about my older private school educated cousin almost flunk out due to concentrating too much on his partying/beer double major were more than enough to scare me off the drug/alcohol experimentation path.</p>
<p>That and I thought they were such a huge waste of money. If I had a few hundred dollars of allowance money, I’d bank it and probably splurge on some computers and picked up the electric guitar at 13-17 rather than in my 30s.</p>
<p>I have seen addiction of all kinds trash lives. I have also seen kids being treated as criminals by the legal justice system and by the education system for, what I would consider minor marijuana infractions. The stuff robs kids of opportunities in so many ways. This kids’ parents need to wake up while they still have SOME control. The idea of giving a teenage drug user a huge allowance, or any allowance at all is unbelievable to me.</p>
<p>I’m a current college freshman from California who goes to school in a state where marijuana is completely illegal. I started smoking marijuana recreationally (at very most three times a month) near the end of my junior year and continue to today, so I have a bit of familiarity with high school drug use. </p>
<p>The reality is, your nephew could be in deep deep trouble if he’s ever caught, and trust me it’s very possible. Often, when high school administrators catch a kid high during class, the first thing they try to ascertain is where the student bought it from. They can, and at least at my high school, have looked at texting and Facebook records, even if the student deleted them. Additionally many staffers have a fairly solid idea of which students are regular marijuana users, so they generally keep a more watchful eye on those people. Selling marijuana in almost any state is a felony, and in some states the parents can be charged if marijuana is found in a house where a minor lives. If I thought my hypothetical kid was a dealer, I’d probably threaten to kick him out. </p>
<p>In California, it’s well known that all of the high school dealers get the weed from dispensaries, so there’s no real risk as far as the source of the marijuana is concerned. It’s basically like a 21 year old selling booze he bought at a liquor store to minors. Outside of California and Colorado, this isn’t the case. Many of the people in the supply chain are extremely sketchy, and do not mess around. I know from talking to my dealer in college that some of the people who sell to street level dealers are involved in harder drugs, or other illegal activities. If your nephew has more than half an ounce of weed, he’s probably getting it from one of those guys, and if I were you, I’d be concerned about his safety.</p>
<p>As far as how much marijuana smoking is too much, I’d say more than once a week is probably excessive. Heck, once a week is pushing it, since it might imply that the only “fun” thing the person knows how to do is blaze with his friends. Many of my friends, by the end of their senior year were smoking more than once a week, and my friends were almost all in the top 10% of my high school class. One was even the valedictorian! But though their academics didn’t suffer, they seemed less able to function in social situations without the aid of some sort of mind altering drug. </p>
<p>The parents are totally in the wrong about this. It’s pretty normal to smoke weed in high school. I know at least half of the people in my senior year AP classes did (I counted), but it’s not normal, or safe, to deal. The kid is in for a world of trouble if even one of his “friends” decides to rat him out after showing up to class high.</p>
<p>I had my son arrested when he was a freshman in high school when we found weed on him. We paid money for a lawyer to represent him, he had a probation officer for a year and it was wiped off his record because he wasn’t 16.</p>