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And, given that you care about kids (and may have your own?) wouldn't you be weirded out by some stranger taking pictures of them? I mean, who sits by their window and has a camera ready? I doubt these kids hung out for more than a few minutes doing their business.
And you know what happens when you tell a kid not to do something...
Ms. Genovese was ignored. I've had a few friends buried whose drug use people chose to ignore. They were no different than KG's neighbors.
Some people on this board would rather say pot's not bad and ignore the fact that minors are using drugs OUT IN THE OPEN instead of helping them.
You would sooner see minors smoke pot, hash, crack, or Heroin? My analogy might seem "ridiculously inappropriate" to you but causes no one harm; your condoning underage use of illegal drugs is dangerous.
As adults it is our responsibility to keep children safe and to help them along the way through life's difficult situations or decisions. As a parent, I would want to know if my child was making a poor choice -- i.e. using illegal drugs.
My friend's son started with pot, beer and graduated to Oxy. Some might argue that pot isn't a gateway. Fine. Perhaps friend's son wasn't liking the pot high anymore -- it wasn't doing it for him. Maybe he thought he'd try something new. All I do know is that the boy disappears for days. He doesn't go to school and lies about where he has been. He is now addicted to a drug and has no desire to get clean. Who knows -- maybe when he started getting high, had he been caught early, he might not have spiralled out of control.
That's where I am coming from -- the position of someone whose friend has cried in my kitchen worried that his missing son will die in a strange place because of drug use. I shake as I write this -- NO ONE SHOULD EVER HAVE TO FEEL THAT FEAR.
The girls the OP's wife saw are probably the same age my friend's son was at when he started. They might skirt through HS stoned and none the worse for wear. Then again, they could end up looking for a better high.
I didn't condone anything. Please don't put words in my mouth. I understand the scourge of addiction all too well. It doesn't change the fact that using the analogy of neighbor's ignoring a woman's cries while being raped and murdered to ignoring kids smoking pot is absurd, improper and freakishly insensitive.
I feel for your friend's son. It is not a story about pot. it is about a chronic drug abuser. I would sooner see parents understand that it's not about pot or alcohol or gateways. It is about feelings of longing, loneliness, low self esteem, pain, fear and misunderstanding and yes HEREDITY that lead to escalating drug use. There is a MUCH MUCH MUCH bigger issue on LI of kids getting into prescription OPIATES!!! OPIATES!! OPIATES!! Not pot, not hash. Stop lumping them together. It makes the problem HARDER TO SOLVE.
We are hypocrites. Drinking is legal and pot is illegal when pot is safer. I don't smoke it. It occupied my life and caused me emotional pain. No one could have stopped me if they tried. You can't legislate that sort of behavior. America is the largest consumer of LEGAL AND ILLEGAL drugs in the world BY FAR. Kids are not stupid. They get it. They see it. They understand the hypocracy. I passed my road test high. I did well on my S.A.T. high. I never moved up to any other drug. It still has NOTHING to do with my many musician friends who became addicts. They went from alcohol to quaaludes to vicodin to xanax to dilaudid or whatever and ultimately to HEROIN! Few of them ever cared much about pot. They cared about OPIATES!!! It is a completely different thing. If people would stop the knee jerk pot-o-phobia they might be able to work on the real problem. The streets are flooded with OPIATES. Pot is expensive. HEROIN is cheap!! Maybe people are approaching this battle all wrong. That is what I am trying to convey.
Last edited by mongoose65; 02-11-2011 at 07:22 PM..
I didn't condone anything. Please don't put words in my mouth. I understand the scourge of addiction all too well. It doesn't change the fact that using the analogy of neighbor's ignoring a woman's cries while being raped and murdered to ignoring kids smoking pot is absurd, improper and freakishly insensitive.
A cry for help unheeded can lead to bigger problems. You don't like analogy. Fine. I get it. Let's move forward.
Quote:
I feel for your friend's son. It is not a story about pot. it is about a chronic drug abuser. I would sooner see parents understand that it's not about pot or alcohol or gateways. It is about feelings of longing, loneliness, low self esteem, pain, fear and misunderstanding and yes HEREDITY that lead to escalating drug use. There is a MUCH MUCH MUCH bigger issue on LI of kids getting into prescription OPIATES!!! OPIATES!! OPIATES!! Not pot, not hash. Stop lumping them together. It makes the problem HARDER TO SOLVE.
I mentioned pot, hash, Heroin and crack because all 4 can be smoked in a little pipe out by someone's driveway. I am not 'lumping them together' for any other reason but to indicate that we don't know exactly what was in the pipe. Over the course of the thread another poster assumed pot.
Yes, opiates are very big with the kids, and far more addicting as well as illegal. Marijuana, despite gaining some degree of acceptance, is still illegal.
Those of us involved in my friend's son's crisis are well aware of the reasons it could have happened; your listing those reasons why so many people turn to drugs is helpful to educate others.
Quote:
We are hypocrites. Drinking is legal and pot is illegal when pot is safer. I don't smoke it. It occupied my life and caused me emotional pain. No one could have stopped me if they tried. You can't legislate that sort of behavior. America is the largest consumer of LEGAL AND ILLEGAL drugs in the world BY FAR. Kids are not stupid. They get it. They see it. They understand the hypocracy. I passed my road test high. I did well on my S.A.T. high. I never moved up to any other drug. It still has NOTHING to do with my many musician friends who became addicts. They went from alcohol to quaaludes to vicodin to xanax to dilaudid or whatever and ultimately to HEROIN! Few of them ever cared much about pot. They cared about OPIATES!!! It is a completely different thing. If people would stop the knee jerk pot-o-phobia they might be able to work on the real problem. The streets are flooded with OPIATES. Pot is expensive. HEROIN is cheap!! Maybe people are approaching this battle all wrong. That is what I am trying to convey.
You're right -- the behavior can't be legislated -- look at the Volstead Act. Repeal didn't help, either. Legalizing one drug is like opening Pandora's box.
Some kids do get it...Dad with a Scotch after a tough day downtown, mom and the girls drinking wine playing cards. Some kids don't care and want to rebel Some kids are as you wrote -- lonely, low self esteem, etc.
They manage to get their hands on illegal drugs, legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
When I was younger it was all about pot, coke was starting to show up, speed, uppers, ludes, LSD and shrooms. Heroin had waned at that point. We were taught about the evils of this drug and that in health -- as a student I found that to be a joke as it merely made deciding what sounded best easier for me. Instead of emphasising the addictive nature of some drugs or the punishment meted out by our judicial system for possession of these drugs, the lessons sounded more to me like a description of the dessert cart.
You might never have moved up to another drug because of your brain chemistry -- others of us are wired differently. So how to fight back the drugs? They can be addictive. They can cause damage physically and emotionally. Some are guaranteed to get you hooked and destroy your life. I believe we're in the same book - fighting the use of drugs but on different pages when it comes to pot.
The OP's wife was in a tough spot. The kids were doing something by her driveway which appeared illegal. Does she turn her back and mutter 'kids will be kids'? If she doesn't know who these kids are it's not her place to lecture them. She felt some moral tug to not ignore the kids.
I'll be honest -- if my friend's son wasn't an addict, I might not be as vociferous in my anti-drug posts. His problems have opened up all the old hurt caused by friend's needless deaths. As a teen and young adult it sucked seeing friends die. As a parent, it's even more difficult watching a friend struggle to keep his son from killing himself.
We could talk to those girls until we're blue in the face and they'll look at us with blank stares and continue on. After all, youth is invincible.
This thread, and the memories it has conjured up, has been exhausting for me. Pain from years ago is suddenly fresh. I am going to have to lay off the topic for a little while.
And, given that you care about kids (and may have your own?) wouldn't you be weirded out by some stranger taking pictures of them? I mean, who sits by their window and has a camera ready? I doubt these kids hung out for more than a few minutes doing their business.
And you know what happens when you tell a kid not to do something...
Anyone with a smart phone in their pocket has a camera at their fingertips. If my little darlings were getting high in front of someone's driveway, and said resident took a photo and forwarded to the school -- I would want to know.
If a perve in his car was snapping pictures of the little darlings playing in the yard, or at the school -- that's weird.
My neighbor's security camera snapped a picture of a stranger entering the other neighbor's house. They gave the picture to the police. Is that weird or helpful?
Anyone with a smart phone in their pocket has a camera at their fingertips. If my little darlings were getting high in front of someone's driveway, and said resident took a photo and forwarded to the school -- I would want to know.
If a perve in his car was snapping pictures of the little darlings playing in the yard, or at the school -- that's weird.
My neighbor's security camera snapped a picture of a stranger entering the other neighbor's house. They gave the picture to the police. Is that weird or helpful?
Oh, even better. You know the quality of smart phone cameras.... can you even tell who is who and who is doing what?
I turned my kid's friend in to her parents for pot and the parents laughed it off. I don't get it. Good family. Privates school. But they thought it was funny.
It's true, they should have rolled a joint so that they are not in possession of paraphernalia.
Leave them alone, it's none of your business at all as long as they are not on your property. But you pretty much already turned them in, by showing the picture. I sure hope they are smart enough to say it was tobacco and stick to their story.
And, no - smoking pot doesn't lead you into taking other drugs. That decision is made the individual and the pot has nothing to do with it.
I feel sorry for them, having to be growing in this moronic society that we have today.
If I were one of those kids I would have flipped you off and gave a loud and clear, "F - you"!
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