18yr old boy smoking marijuana?
Is Medicinal Marijuana the best kind?
September 2, 2010someone is caught growing marijuana, and it is their first offense?
September 2, 2010
My cousin’s son had just turn 18. He never tried marijuana until now. He is in the 12th grade and will be graduating in June. He will be going away to college in Rochester NY. He is getting full scholarship to the college.
His mother is very proud of him. One day she came home and smells the apartment. It smells like someone was smoking marijuana. So she went into his room and found a bag of weed on the bed.
She waited until he got home and confronted him about the smoking. He ignores her. She was very disappointed, because she knows he has a bright future ahead of him. She is a Christian and is very confused on what to do.
She called me and asked me if I can ask a question on yahoo answer to get advice from teenagers, single mothers, and from other Christian. I am asking that you give good advice and rephrase from jokes.
21 Comments
I’m 18 and I’ve tried marijuana…for many years now
I used to smoke, even a little bit in college. And I graduated Cum Laude (with honors) from GA Tech before most of my friends. It’s not the end of the world, so be careful not to be judgmental or have any hard preconceptions about what it means for him to smoke marijuana.
He would have tried it college anyway. I’m not being smug, just truthful.
Well dont bug him about it. Just say ” You know what Johhny boy? I wish you wouldnt smoke weed. It just aint cool.” I undersatnd why you wouldnt want him smoking it but hey! atleast hes not doing anything worse! (meth,crack, killing people, ETC.)
He is going to smoke weed no matter how much criticism he gets, only he can change his mind and make the decision to stop. He probably shouldn’t be smoking weed since our government has such ridiculous laws against it, i should be able to put whatever i want into my body as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else. But if he smokes weed he could get kicked out of a University if caught, its serious.
They say it cures Swine Flu!
if he is doing it in her house then he needs to stop
he is a adult but he also has to respect his parents house and the rules.
As my father said, 30 years ago when he found out my sister was smoking pot, if the worst thing your kid does is smoke a little pot, you are in pretty good shape. She should not make a huge deal out of this. A lot of kids are doing a lot worse.
Most Americans have experimented with pot… Its no big shocker… Most grow out of it.
Baby Jesus won’t cry too much because this 18 Y/O tried pot…
Now they know, now they can take positive action to keep him from becoming a pot head… I’d rather find a kid with weed than hiding a bottle of booze anyday..
LOL…. sure his first time…
To be fair its better then finding him drinking.
SINCERE ANSWER:
I’ll try to give the best advice I can. I don’t advocate that kids smoke marijuana and I don’t want it to come off that way, but this is what I think:
If he’s going off to college then you can bet your bottom dollar that he’s going to light up occasionally because everyone does it in college. I do it all the time and I have a 3.84 GPA, I’m in Phi Theta Kappa, and I’m on the Dean’s list. Smoking marijuana doesn’t automatically make you a burn out.
I think that she should talk to her son and make sure that he puts it in it’s place. Just like alcohol it should only be a once in a while thing. If it becomes something that he is doing too often then it’s a problem, but it’s just recreational and not too often then is it really that big a deal? I think she’s just going to push him away if she just tells him it’s all evil and he shouldn’t do it. He’s young so he’s probably not going to listen to that. Just tell him moderation is the key.
Well It’s verrrry normal for teenagers to have experiences with marijuana sometimes it’s because they believe it will help them with stress which is probably the case since he is eighteen and has a lot of thing s going on in his life at this time. It’s probably just a phase.
I hope you found what your looking for 😀
two things –
1. Marijuana isn’t the equivalent of the Antichrist. It’s illegal and there are some issues there, but let’s not make it out to be more than it is.
2. If the Christian mentality will allow you to simply be honest with the kid and let him know that while pot isn’t the end of the world, the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. There are too many legal risks, not to mention that it does dull your mind. If he truly loves getting smoked up and becomes a full on pothead, it’s tough to go back. Let him know that you care, or have others in his family. Make sure he understands that it simply is about making smarter choices at this time in his life. Just like drinking, getting wasted isn’t really all the impressive or beneficial, so it’s best to stay away from it. He’s going to do what he’s going to do, but if you treat him with respect and like the young adult that he is, at least he will respect your advice and hopefully follow it…
PS – I have no problems with getting high, and frankly, it hasn’t hurt me in the least….
Eh, sounds like the majority of high school kids in the U.S. No biggie really.
Marijuana is not innately bad for you, nor is smoking it evil or a sin. It is a personal choice to smoke marijuana, just that. It is not addicting, you cannot overdose on it and in some cases has been proven to actually decrease risk for bone and certain types of skin cancer!
Unchecked Marijuana consumption is bad for you, as marijuana CAN be abused. However, if he only smokes once a week or so, there is no harm done, so long as he is working/going to school/being productive. It is like alcohol. Is alcohol very bad for you? Eh, not really. Somewhat. But if you abuse it, it can DESTROY your life. Marijuana is not an evil thing and should not be treated as such. It is a unique drug that, if used in the right circumstances and in moderation, can be very therapeutic and relieving. We just have to make sure that it is not abused.
Hope this helps.
Don’t worry about him smoking when he goes to college. Used well, it can improve concentration. The trick is to get all the topics that don’t require intense concentration out of the way first, then take a break with the bong, then dive into the subjects that take real focus.
I got honors that way.
I’m not necessarily condoning it but he will probably grow out of it. Teenagers are stupid.
Your cousin’s son is already at an age where no one can tell him what to do. You can only hope and pray that a righteous upbringing instilled in him when he was small will begin to take effect. Sad to say, his mother is no longer the greatest influence in his life. His friends are. But never minimize the importance and power of prayer. God is not restricted by distance. Just don’t tie God’s hands. If you tell Him to resolve the problem, be patient and let Him do what He needs to do. After all He is wiser than us. The bible says in Psalm 27:14: “Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart. Wait, I say on the Lord.” ————————–
I’m not a Christian, but I’ve seen firsthand how drugs screw up your life. I have three brothers, and my oldest brother got involved with drugs at an early age (jr. high school). He was a terrible student and it ruined his college career. Of the four of us, he’s the only one who didn’t finish college. My younger brother and I have master’s degrees and my older brother has a Ph.D. We saw what drugs did to our oldest brother so we stayed away from that stuff. Even now, our oldest brother is a big loser and the rest of our family won’t even talk to him.
When I was in college, a few of my friends were still smoking pot, but very rarely. By the second year, they had stopped completely because their grades were dropping. Your friend’s son probably does not know this, but 1/3 of all freshmen do not graduate, and only 10% graduate with the major they started out with.
I’m afraid college is much more difficult than freshmen expect. I remember a lot of my engineering classmates changing their major to ‘business’ because they just couldn’t handle it. Most of them were the top students in their high school but college is very different from high school. Your friend’s son may think he’s going to have an easy time at school but if he’s smoking pot, he’s going to be part of that 1/3 that drops out. Remind her that if his grades drop below a certain level he’ll lose his scholarship and then he’ll be totally screwed.
Giz
Marijuana potency has grown steeply over the past decade with serious implications for users. Average levels of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive ingredient) in marijuana sold in America rose from 3.5% in 1988 to 8.5% in 2006. “Skunk” is the most potent strain.
In the same period the number of admissions to psychiatric hospital caused by the drug soared by 85 per cent due to the fact that those who smoke the drug regularly are more than twice as likely to suffer illnesses such as schizophrenia, hallucinations and delusions later in life.
Teens using marijuana to alleviate feelings of depression just compound the problem.
As well as psychotic illness cannabis can cause affective disorders such as depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Even worse it is linked to cancers.
Cannabis users display neuropsychological dysfunction (relative frontal lobe functioning deficits, cognitive inhibition) and attentional deficits similar to those found in schizotypal or schizophrenia patients.
Regular use can shrink the parts of the brain which control memory, emotion and aggression. The hippocampus, which is thought to govern emotion and memory averages 12 percent smaller and the amygdala, which has a part in controlling fear and aggression, 7 percent smaller. This suggests that heavy daily use may be toxic to human brain tissue.
Blood flow velocity is significantly higher in users and they have higher values on the pulsatility index (PI), which measures the amount of resistance to blood flow. This is thought to be due to narrowing of the blood vessels that occurs when the circulation system’s ability to regulate itself is impaired. This leads to abnormalities in the small blood vessels in the brain.
The active chemical in MJ called delta-9-tetrahyrdocannabinol (THC) binds to cannabinoid (CB) receptors located on several cell types in various organs. This greatly increases the risk for heart attacks and strokes in addition to impaired learning and memory.
It can also effect physical health. Three to four cannabis cigarettes a day cause the same amount of damage to the lungs as 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day. Thus there are rising levels of lung diseases such as emphysema.
In comparison to cigarettes marijuana smoke has significantly higher levels of toxic compounds, including ammonia and hydrogen cyanide. Ammonia levels are 20 times higher while hydrogen cyanide, nitric oxide and certain aromatic amines occurred at levels 3-5 times higher.
It can also effect the unborn child. Scientists have identified that endogenous cannabinoids, molecules naturally produced by our brains are functionally similar to THC from cannabis and play significant roles in establishing how certain nerve cells connect to each other. Maternal cannabis use allows THC to travel through the placenta and impair fetal brain development and impose life-long cognitive, social, and motor deficits in affected offspring.
Low doses of Ä-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), equivalent to that in the bloodstream of an average marijuana smoker facilitate infection of skin cells and can cause these cells to turn into malignant sarcoma. Men who regularly smoke cannabis have a 70 per cent increased risk of testicular cancer.
And then there are all the car crashes caused by people driving under the influence of drugs that are at this moment being quantified but already show that more drug drivers kill than drink drivers!!
You may want to share this “prodigal” story w/ him:
I smoked pot from 17 to 50. During that time, I fathered 3 children who did w/o a lot of even the necessities because of my (& their mother’s) habit. Guess where I am today…..in a homeless shelter. My life went to the bottom because I didn’t care about anything else but getting high. I’ve been married 3 times & I’m presently divorced (the children were born during my 2nd marriage). I’ve gotten training in 2 different fields & I didn’t follow up w/ a career in either one. I’m now on the rebound spiritually & financially. I now work in the same shelter, but due to the shelter’s financial problems, my pay is a year behind — basically, I can’t afford to move out. I can’t seem to climb out of the rut to which my past has led me.
I’ve been drug-free for 4 years now, but getting back on track may still be some time away. I used to delude myself by thinking that I was smoking pot because it helped my nerves, but all it did was make things worse. I only recently got help for severe, chronic depression.
He’s at a stage in his life which will determine the sort of life he will be leading for many years to come. He needs to decide right now what sort of future he wants. ~:|>