Tell your kids how NOT to get busted.

[maxsolomon]

My stepdaughter is 17. Guess what? She has smoked marijuana & drank alcohol. GASP! She also has a 3.8 GPA, plays varsity soccer, plays piano, guitar, & takes math BEYOND calculus. Other parents describe her as "the brightest bulb in the class".

As inveterate illegal drug users ourselves, we've tried above all not to be hypocrites. Our discussions regarding drugs have always focused on responsibility rather than prohibition; don't DRIVE drunk, don't carry paraphenalia, and despite living in Seattle, you live in America; basically a police state. This weekend, she got to see it up close.

Saturday night, she & about 7 of her buds are staying at a parent's house & decide to head down to the dock at the park about 1 a.m. They had no alcohol. They all sat peacefully on the dock smoking out & talking. 3 friends headed back to the house, where the Kirkland Po "interviewed" them for being out on the streets at that time, wrote down all their names & addresses. The cops then headed to the dock & proceeded to arrest & handcuff 1 boy for posession with INTENT TO DISTRIBUTE (he had a quarter on him), cite the hostess for MIP, and scare the F out of the rest of the kids. She called us at 2 a.m. freaked that the Po was going to call us first (they never called, they were bluffing).

Their mistake in my mind was not smoking dope. It was carrying anything but a joint or 2 that could be easily tossed in the lake. Don't tell your kids to never ever ever smoke dope. Be realistic. Tell them how not to get busted. Tell your kids: NEVER CARRY MORE THAN A GRAM. NEVER CARRY PARAPHENALIA.