Letters to the Editor
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Oops
Oops, I mistyped "calling" -- for shame, for shame. Anonymous, feel free to slam the US for my typo, too.
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Some questions here
This part of the letter says it all
" A few months ago, the latest flare-up turned into the full-blown crisis I knew might one day come. When he was sorting the laundry, the son discovered a pipe, in-your-face evidence that Mom still smokes and brings the stuff (or at least the paraphernalia) in the house. He threatened to leave. The dad, laid up recovering from foot surgery, told the mom to leave for a few days, to give some space and to come back with some ideas about how to make things better."
The kid "finds" a pipe while sorting laundry(more likely going though Mom's purse or underwear drawer) So kid confronts Mom with the ultimatum that she quit or he will leave, apparently that does not get him what he wants so he goes to Daddy and whines and threatens and bingo results Dad tells Mom to leave for a few days, what is wrong with this picture? Kid just pulled the ultimate divide and conquer. Dad does not support Mom in the slightest nor do either of them care all too much that pot helps alleviate pain, no they would rather have her on Oxy or something similar, maybe in a more drugged state she would be more amendable to their demands and less able to have her own life.
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Dang, if there were ever a candidate for medicinal MJ,
it's MacK. So much anger, self-righteousness, scorn, contempt, and desire to impose his views on others. And if you disagree with him, you are a disgusting pothead.
Move over, Rush Limbaugh....
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Pandora_mtl - "Deception is essential" !
Yes, it is if you have allowed yourself to be swallowed up by the corporate machine, internalising their "ethos", blaming the victim, being a slave. Your words say it all: "I smoked to get over the stress of long weeks and slowly started smoking over weekdays, till it was clear it was interfering with my ability to be the corporate bitch - and you need to be the corporate bitch to take responsibility for yourself, parents children."
SO sorry you have given up on life to serve the borg.
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Alia iacta Stoner
I don't care either way how much you love the bud, how much you think its wonderful or harmless or even how much you hate it and truly believe its the scourge. The fact remains that it's illegal. Seems self serving to work to get a 15 year old to break the law and possibly charged as an adult.
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In the kid's shoes
I too grew up with a major ex-hippy in the household (and the only parent to boot). At first, although I knew dad smoked something very fragrant in addition to his cigarettes, I didn't think anything of it because it didn't impact his abilities to provide everything expected of a father. Then DARE came to school. I don't know what the program teaches now, but back then, EVERYTHING would kill you. Pot, meth, heroin, cocaine: all were spun in the same degree of "bad for you/you're a bad person for doing them". There really was no actual eductation. Just scare tactics.
What did I do? I asked my Dad about what the DARE people said. My father, being experienced in all forms of drugs, has always been 100% honest with me and told me the truth: meth, coke, heroin, speed (and basically any drug that's processed) is bad, will ruin your life etc. and to stay away from them at all costs. Pot, on the other hand, was nothing to freak out over, but I shouldn't be doing it (and I didn't until I moved out of the house at 18, despite growing up around it). As my Dad had been (and still is) smoking it since I could remember, I just shrugged and went back outside and roller skated. My father, a single father and a MAJOR pot head, managed to raise me and my brother on his own, hold a really good job in a very lucrative industry, and provide not only a house in one of the most expensive parts of the country, but clothes, food: everything we not only needed, but wanted.
Also, I wasn't the only one with pot-head parents. Three of my best friends in HS (also best friends today) have parents with similar (if not the same, depending on the friend) routines. And they were kick ass parents, too!
This letter doesn't really get into the specifics of how the mother's pot use is affecting her ability to be a mother. Is she neglecting her motherly duties? Is her household somehow suffering due to her drug use other than her son's discomfort with the drug? Does he just not like to be around her when she's high? All I gathered from the letter was that the son doesn't like pot in the house, but there's no underlying reason for that.
IMO, it sounds very much like there's two problems here: the mother needs to be talked into being more descrete (which my father did become after our talk post-DARE) and the son needs to be properly educated about not only marijuana, but all drugs. It doesn't seem that if she were to get a marijuana card, and thus be LEGALLY taking the drug for her back pain, that her son would let-up at all. IMO, it sounds like he doesn't have a very realistic view on drug-use and their varying effects on the user. Of course he's only 15 (what 15 year-old has a truly realistic view on anything?)
However, if the kid is this passionate about her stopping this drug use, I really do think that the she should step up to the plate and, if not stop all together, become descrete enough so that it doesn't interfere with her relationship with her son. Once her son as turned 18 (OMG, 3 whole years!), she can return to her usual routine of smoking in the house whenever she wants. Afterall, it'll be her house again. But in the meantime, I agree that she should take a step back and at the very least, become discrete in her use and probably not be high around her son (her behavior when high not withstanding; just keep her son happy while he lives at home). Save it for when he's at school, or when he's gone to bed. There's really no need for both child and mother to become alienated from each other over this issue.