When pot is legal, how do you convince teens to abstain?

The Sacramento Bee ^ | August 2nd, 2016 | By Jeremy B. White

[Mariner]

Portland, Ore.

For Oregon kids growing up in the age of legal marijuana, the presence of pot can be a matter of perspective.

Pausing during a visit to a mall in Portland, Neema Doti and her friends described the plant as ubiquitous.

They recounted classmates who got it from older friends or even, in one case, a permissive parent. It was, one noted, all over Snapchat. But that didn’t seem to influence Doti and her friends, who uniformly said they had no interest.

“You might not be in control of whatever you’re doing,” said Doti, 18. “It messes up your health as well ... it’ll affect your education.”

But less abstinent teenagers said they saw little difference. Sam S., an 18-year-old who grew up in Portland, described himself as a “relatively avid user,” reflecting an adolescent propensity for experimenting regardless of the law, which took effect in October. He declined to be named since he’s still not allowed to use marijuana legally. Not that it’s ever stopped him.

“From before it was legalized to after didn’t really change anything,” Sam said.

[Scutter]

When my son was 12 or 13, I took him on a tour through a very trashy local trailer park.

I told him “all of these people smoke pot.”

Oh, that is a fantastic idea. Love it!

[fr_freak]

He started smoking pot at 14, was doing meth and heroin within a year, selling himself to get high to some pretty nasty drug dealers by the time he was 20, contracted some nasty oral and anal STDs, parents are ashamed to talk about it.

LOL. This kid is such a statistical anomaly that your mentioning him in this way suggests the opposite of what you think you are suggesting. Given how many people, including teenagers, have tried or regularly smoke pot and have not gone down such an extreme road, your anecdote suggests that pot has nothing to do with it, or else we would have had a Mad Max society by the seventies.

[fr_freak]

I think it would be easier to limit your list to one item:

1) the nuclear family is no longer your number one influence (instead, get your values from TV, movies, and your hippie teachers, kids!)

The rest is just details.

[fr_freak]

Well according to FR libertarian drug advocates, smoking weed is good for teenagers. Builds character, determination and problem-solving skills.

Yeah, I'm calling BS - no Freeper has said anything like that, ever. Produce the post.

[gdani]

Alcohol isn't inherently evil.

It is one of the many things God has given for our enjoyment, in moderation of course.

Since marijuana grows in the wild, and alcohol (typically) requires much human intervention and activity, one could make easily make the argument marijuana is much more God-given than booze.

[Georgia Girl 2]

The same easy you get them to abstain from cigarettes and alcohol. Watch them like a hawk. :-)

[areukiddingme1]

Glad you think what happened to Denny is funny — His Mom and Dad and two sisters are absolutely heartbroken every day, but yeah, that’s funny. Watching someone in your life destroyed is hilarious.

Want some matches and lighter fluid, maybe you can catch a box of puppies on fire, I hear that is a hoot!

[showme_the_Glory]

You keep a lid on it (good pun heh?)

That's the key

[fr_freak]

Don’t be such a drama queen. The funny part is you thinking that the anecdote proves anything about pot. It is, indeed, a tragedy what happened to that kid, but he obviously had much greater problems than pot to begin with. When such a tragedy occurs, people look for something easy and simple to blame. What we can’t do is let public policy be directed by someone’s misguided hysteria. Neither you, nor anyone else, gets to use a personal tragedy to promote a separate agenda.

[gunsequalfreedom]

You really have to pound it into the kids not to do drugs.

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

And they caused nothing but misery and heartache until they took their last breath.

I guess things would have worked out better if they were potheads in addition to being hard-core alcoholics.

[areukiddingme1]

Noted!!! Nice opinion...

Easy to call someone a drama queen behind a key board isn’t it??

[angry elephant]

In Texas HS football is a lifestyle. I quit playing after 10th grade and got a job. I preferred to have money to go do things. My parents were old fashioned and said if I wanted “luxury” things I had to earn them.

---

I think that getting young people involved in athletics and music keeps them engaged so that they are less willing to look around for activities which may be unhealthy for them.

That said, here in Washington state one has to be 21 to purchase legal weed. Of course there has always been the illegal weed and that is where young people would likely obtain it.

Just like somehow there were always teen parties and spring break where the underaged drank alcohol.

[fr_freak]

Well, if I had known you were going to be so sensitive, I might have used gentler language.