My 12 year old son is smoking weed

[Marie0]

Just been tidying my son's room (he's out) and found in his man bag a lighter, almost empty packet of rizlas with most if the cardboard being stripped off (presumably used for roaches) and a small empty plastic bag with a motif of a marijuana plant on.

I feel so disappointed by don't want to rant and rave at him as I think this will push him more to do this. (He's really defiant and aggressive and does what he wants anyway)

It's his 13th birthday on Monday and this is a real dampner.

Anyone got any experience of how to deal with this please?

thank you

In some areas you can access some teenage mental health services without waiting for a referral to CAMHS. Reviews of teen mental health provision in the last few years have found that there are some great services out there in some areas, but they're not joined-up and sometimes don't even know about each other.

1. Look at youngminds.org.uk and see if anything there might help.

1. Ask your GP for a referral, if you've not already done so. You can go for an appointment alone, ie without your son, to ask about it.

1. Could your family pay for some private counselling for him? To make a start, at least.

1. I attended a talk by a psychiatrist on teen drug misuse. He said that it's important not to go mad and to keep the channels of communication open, but also emphasised how very harmful cannabis and, especially, many of the "legal highs" like Spice can be too the developing brain. A teenager using cannabis is much more at risk than an adult. Triggering psychosis is the last thing he needs.

Thinking of you.

I wonder how this worked out - OP are you still there?