My Teen Is Smoking Marijuana, Now What?

Help, I Caught My Teen Smoking Marijuana

“My husband and I had our first date night in over a year. When we came home, our son was obviously high. It really shocked us. He’s 17,  and he’s always been really anti-drugs. We don’t know what to do. He’s denying it. Even though we found a vape pen in his room, he says it’s not his. How do we start to address it with him when he won’t talk about it?”

Take A Deep Breath…

If you thought your teen was never going to try smoking marijuana, but you just found out you were wrong, take a deep breath (no pun intended) and watch this video. Afterwards, we have some tips for talking to your kid about weed smoking:

1. Don’t try to talk to them about while they’re high! They’re too stoned and you’re probably too upset and worried to make good decisions. While they’re high is not the time to address it!
2. A teen who has been smoking marijuana is probably scared of getting in trouble. Consequently, don’t approach the topic from a place of anger. He/She will just do or say whatever they can to not get in trouble. Your teen is probably feeling some level of shame, address from a place of calm and compassion, not punishment
3. Similarly, share your concern that you want to be able to trust him/her and be able to leave them at home or let them do their own thing. 
4. Whenever you find weed or paraphernalia in your kid’s room, it’s theirs!
5. You may want to talk to them about the dangers of marijuana: it’s not heroin, but it ain’t broccoli either, even though it’s green.
6. In case you’re having a difficult time talking about it, a therapist can help.
7. They’ll try to tell you it’s not addictive, but yes, you can get addicted to weed! Going to rehab isn’t necessarily the first step however. You’ll need to do some research here.
8. If you decide to do drug testing, make a plan! What will you do to celebrate if your teen passes the test? What will you do if they fail. You need a specific plan that you made when you were calm and thoughtful to address either outcome.
9. Got more questions? Call us here

We’ve got a bunch more resources about teens and marijuana here on our site.