You’ve probably noticed that I’m pretty flippant about marijuana. It’s because I believe it’s generally harmless, and certainly far less problematic for society than alcohol.

But it’s also because I’m not an addict, because my frame of reference is my own history of casual, social drug use and because drugs in my day were far less of a threat than they are today.

Times have changed. {I am not arguing that pot isn’t –or is– a gateway drug; I’ll leave that for another day.}

Parenting is harder than ever today. Among the biggest parental challenges is trying to monitor kids enough to protect them from the crazy, awful things that are out there (more now than in our day). And to do that without neurotically overprotecting them.

It’s a fine line. And even if a parent thinks s/he’s on top of the issue, a kid may still develop drug problems.

If you tell me that church-going kids who are raised right don’t do drugs or get addicted, I can cite you many cases to the contrary. Sometimes, there’s no rhyme or reason for why a kid gets addicted and why even repeated rehab doesn’t work.

It’s not parenting.

They say addiction’s a disease. I will leave that to the experts.
I don’t have any answers.

I just know that any drug use in high school and before that is serious and that parents need to be on top of this one issue, perhaps more than any other. And if you don’t believe me, then watch this video.

This young, former high school athlete overdosed on oxycontin five years ago. He can no longer speak, walk or take care of himself. You can read more about his story here, if you can bear it: http://tinyurl.com/2fucw3n

I’m not going to stop being flippant about marijuana. But I am going to pray for this family and others touched by this terrible problem.

And I’m going to suggest that watching this video with your kids and talking about drugs might save their lives.