Drug taking 17 year old

[Stephanie1311]

Help! 17 year old DS has been smoking weed for about a year. He is reluctant to give up. We are now going to do all we can to prevent him from getting cash such as paying for everything he needs in kind. Are we over reacting? My older 27 year old DD saif it is not really much to worry about and that a lot of teenagers are regular users.
Thanks.

Lots of teenagers are regular users but that doesn't make it OK. I live in n area which is notorious for drug use started by hippy community that moved here in the 70s, think middle class drop outs who smoked the doobie back in the day, normalised it and their kids and grandkids became regular smokers. Sadly the younger kids are smoking the crazily strong varieties of skunk and as lots of them don't have jobs they are smoking all day and all night. It is no coincidence that in our town a lot of these kids have mental health diagnoses.

I am not saying that all kids who smoke weed will develop serious mental health problems but I do think the risk is too high to let it go. You need to keep an eye on your son, is he at school, is he achieving or is he spending all his time stoned.

Do u know how much he's smoking? How often? Yeah a lot of teens smoke it but it don't mean it's ok. It is also addictive you know. People say it's not but it definitely is

No your not over reacting by the way! He's your son and you have every right to be concerned about this.

Look for some of Maryz's threads on the teenagers forum and you will get some good advice.

Thanks for replies and advice. Answering your questions :-
He is doing a Level 3 BTEC ( A level stage ) and is working well, better than last year in year 11.
He claims to smoke once of twice a week. he is in with a skateboarding crowd where it is part of the culture but not as important as the physical exercise which he does most days.

My biggest concerns are if he loses his motivation to work and if it is a gateway to harder drugs.

I don't think it is always a gateway drug. As I mentioned where I live there is an unusually high prevalence of people smoking weed. Nearly everybody I grew up with smoked and not all of us went on to try harder drugs. It doesn't always follow. My experience leads me to think it does depend on the individual. Quite a lot of the skater kids round here smoke and it does seem to be part of the culture but it isn't the focus.

I think if your son is still motivated at college, still getting up in the mornings to go and still interested in staying fit and healthy then that is all positive. Again, based purely on my experience, it was/is the kids that dropped out of school and didn't have anything to aim for or do with there day that fell into heavy dope smoking.

That website Talk to Frank used to have some very good and current info on cannabis - facts vs myths etc. It would be worth a look there I think.

Thank you. That is helpful