Troubled Teens Resources

The article excerpted below is sad testimony to the pervasiveness of teen drug abuse. As if parents needed further proof. But then again, it is easy to rationalize when your teen starts demonstrating unusual behavior, to dismiss it as teen angst, typical adolescent rebellion. If it were an even playing field out there, if teenage drug abuse remained the rarity it was decades ago, the parent could perhaps safely ride through the tempestuousness of youth without the worry that their at-risk teen could easily be diverted down a path of self-destruction.

Unfortunately,in today’s society, teenage drug abuse is extolled in music and film. Thugs and dealers are glamorized and the ultimate consequences that teenage drug abuse most surely leads to are dismissed. How else could teenagers ever imagine that teaching toddlers to get high was in any way acceptable?

“Police in suburban Fort Worth, Texas, said a videotape found in a search for stolen goods appears to show two teenagers persuading a 2-year-old boy and his 5-year-old brother to smoke marijuana.

Third-degree felony charges have been filed against the teenagers.

“I have never seen anything like this quite so disturbing,” said Bruce Ure, director of public safety for the Watauga Police Department. “Our children count on us to protect them; these individuals did everything but protect these children.”

Among the items recovered was camera equipment, Ure said. Upon looking at one of the tapes, investigators came across “a session where these two males were providing marijuana” to the youngsters, he said. “They were essentially trying to get them high, laughing. The children are stumbling, falling around.”

Ure said it appeared that the videotaped scene was not the boys’ first such session.

The 2-year-old was holding what appeared to be a marijuana cigarette “like he’s done it before,” Ure said. “He’s inhaling.”

The boys’ mother, McCoy’s sister, has told police she was sleeping in the back bedroom during the incident. She has not been charged, Ure said.

Nor has another minor, who served as the cameraman, Ure said.

In the video, a man puts a cigarette into the toddler’s mouth. The other boy is seen smoking without prompting.”
(Source)

One can only hope that the toddler’s guardians will be charged. Perhaps if irresponsible parents were made to pay for their derelict behavior, the children might finally grasp the concept of consequences.

Unfortunately, teen drug abuse is so rampant in our culture that responsible and attentive parents are also subject to the constant menace that their teen will fall victim as well.

Though you may not be able to conceive of your own teenagers displaying such irresponsible behavior, drug use whittles away at a teen’s common sense and distorts their perceptions. Drug addiction is the hand maiden of rationalization. If a teenager honestly believes that he derives benefits from smoking pot, it is not too far a leap for he or she to imagine that their younger brother or sister will as well.The importance of parent vigilance can not be emphasized enough.