How Would You Deal With A Teenager?

[Sunstone]

In the case of the kid Lightkeeper mentioned in her first post, he/she was both failing school and smoking pot. The fact he/she was failing school could be related to smoking pot. And, certainly, pot doesn't help with studying. When smoking pot begins to interfere with school, pot is being abused.

 

[Druidus]

I agree fully with you Sunstone. As soon as it interferes with life, it is abuse. However, most likely, it isn't the cause of the problem right now. If it is (And you are at least 75% sure that it is), I urge you, get him to a rehab clinic, if possible.

 

[Sunstone]

There's probably a lot more going on with this kid than simply smoking pot and failing school. For instance: I have a hunch he/she might have a psychiatric illness. That's something that would be worth checking out. The smoking pot and failing school might be symptoms of deeper problems. But whatever the case, it's time to get the professionals involved! There should be intervention now, before this becomes a lifelong problem for the kid.

 

[cardero]

These are some excerpts I found on parenting that may help you.

As children mature they recreate themselves almost every day. They can lose control of their emotions, usually settling on doubts about themselves and others involuntarily. It is important to K(NOW) which direction your child is headed at every moment. This helps you anticipate their decisions and methods of learning and experiencing life. As children grow older they develop a sense of privacy that they want their parents to respect, but this is no reason to lose touch with a child.

Parents sometimes see their children through "parent eyes," which means they have pre-conceived perceptions of how their children behave or how they want them to behave. When a situation comes up that does not fit existing perspectives, it may BE wise to seek a new angle or insight. Children abandon old methods and behaviors just as frequently as they change their clothes. Parents should BE on the lookout for different behavioral techniques and methods. This involves staying alert and maybe distancing themselves from the situation. Outside stimuli may provide certain keys of information that has been missed.

Children believe that growing up is difficult so, to make it easier, they give in to current trends, fads, fashions, and behavior. This is where we lose most of the parents, because parents do not follow the interests of children's generations. Some will not want to UNDERSTAND and they choose to avoid it altogether. It is very important to keep abreast of the latest interests targeted at children. It will give you an edge to UNDERSTANDING and help you discuss the facts as your children develop as individual entities.

Teach children to BE their “own person.” Teach them not to follow, but to BE a leader to their own actions.

Parents should make themselves approachable to children for everything. Why are children lying, and stealing, and fearing you? Because they think parents will not UNDERSTAND or not approve of their actions. The trick is to help children decide before they go through with a behavior so this action (or reaction) won’t BE detrimental to their PURPOSE.

Advance them further as they grow older. Children do not like to BE told how to act as children. With some parents, this is exactly what is BEing taught. Kids are people, too. They are your equals…just like you.

ALL(WAYS) explain to your child why something is, even if you have to re-tell it. If you do not K(NOW) why, then find out together. You can teach a child many things that will help promote PURPOSE and well BEing into their lives. And the best part about the REALationship between child and parent is that a child can also teach his or her parents about their own PURPOSEs as well.

 

[Mr Spinkles]

It is a drug that causes no harm, to the user or to people around you.

I learned in health class that long term use of pot impares the memory and learning abilities. Inhaling any substance, to my knowledge, that blocks oxygen to the brain kills brain cells.

 

[Lightkeeper]

It can also cause birth defects in future children. I know a long term pot smoker, a male, who had a child with severe disabilities.

 

[Druidus]

1. Marijuana causes brain damage

The most celebrated study that claims to show brain damage is the rhesus monkey study of Dr. Robert Heath, done in the late 1970s. This study was reviewed by a distinguished panel of scientists sponsored by the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. Their results were published under the title, Marijuana and Health in 1982. Heath's work was sharply criticized for its insufficient sample size (only four monkeys), its failure to control experimental bias, and the misidentification of normal monkey brain structure as "damaged". Actual studies of human populations of marijuana users have shown no evidence of brain damage. For example, two studies from 1977, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed no evidence of brain damage in heavy users of marijuana. That same year, the American Medical Association (AMA) officially came out in favor of decriminalizing marijuana. That's not the sort of thing you'd expect if the AMA thought marijuana damaged the brain.

For brain damage to begin to occur due to too little oxygen, you would have to be subject to zero percent oxygen conditions for about one-and-a-half minutes. Any damage caused by inhaling a substance is caused by the substance itself, as no one holds it in for that long.

I learned in health class that long term use of pot impares the memory and learning abilities.

I learned in science that atoms are orbited by electrons. Is this true? No, electrons actually form a quantum probability cloud around the atom. The reason I was taught that was because that was the percieved knowledge at the time. Schools teach a government regulated curriculum, and if they want marijuana to seem bad, it will, regardless of how faulty the research is.

It can also cause birth defects in future children. I know a long term pot smoker, a male, who had a child with severe disabilities.

I know of a person who drives a car. Her baby was born disabled as well. Should we criminalize cars? The fact is, there is no evidence of marijuana harming the child if you are male. If you are female, and you are pregnant, I will concede the point. Almost all drugs can harm something so small. Exactly how do you propose that the male smoking marijuana has an effect?

2. Marijuana damages the reproductive system

This claim is based chiefly on the work of Dr. Gabriel Nahas, who experimented with tissue (cells) isolated in petri dishes, and the work of researchers who dosed animals with near-lethal amounts of cannabinoids (i.e., the intoxicating part of marijuana). Nahas' generalizations from his petri dishes to human beings have been rejected by the scientific community as being invalid. In the case of the animal experiments, the animals that survived their ordeal returned to normal within 30 days of the end of the experiment. Studies of actual human populations have failed to demonstrate that marijuana adversely affects the reproductive system.