"I used to live in the West Indies, in Trinidad. I visited Jamaica ~ many times. Ganja (pot) is pretty much a way of life there. The laws are not enforced against the locals, but woe to the American tourist who gets caught. When I lived there, that is one part of the culture that I hated. I was 15 when we moved there and and even back then (30 years ago) I had enough sources that I could have gotten pot or alcohol in 15 minutes if I wanted to, which I didn't. 

Now our country is just like them. I wonder who will lead America in the future? I have learned that  my daughters' friends' mothers were allowing and sometimes even joining in their drug and alcohol abuse. These were "new" friends that she had only had for about 8 months. They were very different from me, but I tried to develop a rapport with them to make sure that they would not allow alcohol or drugs in their homes. The bottom line is that they were lying to me the whole time. I am not just talking about one family. I am talking about five mothers that I was in contact with who were all lying to me. I just assumed that parents wouldn't want their kids to do drugs. Boy was I wrong. I don't know what the answer is, or what is happening to our nation. I have joined a substance abuse ministry at our church and we are trying to find ways to target youths who are at risk and their parents and try to help them before it is too late. A lot of their parents don't care. The ones that do are like us, and they get help for their child and they don't stand for drug and alcohol abuse in their family. Thanks for letting me vent."

"I, too was totally amazed that my daughter's friend's mother was not only supplying drugs, using them along with the girls, but lying to us as well. She would tell us that the girls were asleep when in fact they were either at the clubs or at Raves. It took us awhile to figure things out. She told us that we had the same standards as their family... yeah, right! When she discovered that we had placed Cassie in CCM she was livid. She believed that we had violated Cassie's rights and were totally overreacting...all kids experimented, nothing to worry about. We were a little afraid that she would create trouble for us...scary stuff. I feel so sad for her two daughters..."