[mpethybridge]

My advice depends on whether your little brother knows that you know he smokes pot or not, and, equally importantly, whether you smoke pot and, if so, whether he knows. Both opinions come from my experiences raising my (now 18) daughter.


Option 1, he knows you know: This is the worst case scenario, because you are forced to try to reason with someone who really is more or less incapable of connecting actions with their consequences in the abstract. But your only option here is to point out the downside consequences. Mom and Dad will be pissed, you could wind up in court, etc. Don't take the well-reasoned argument route--try to scare him by forcing him to look at the consequences. Then you have to keep it up. Repetion is the key to learning.

Option 2, he doesn't know you know. In this case, you periodically have to drop anti-drug stories into your conversations with him--"so and so got busted," "so-and-so pot head is such a loser."

Both are long term projects. You can't just have a talk with him and hope this solves the problem. Option 2 is much better; my daughter tended to ignore my "lectures," but tended to soak up without really noticing my casual stories. I represented so many drugged out losers and told so many stories about them at home that my daughter was never even remotely tempted to use any drugs. But lecture as I might, she kept smoking cigarettes and goofing off in school.

Option 3, he knows you use. This is bad. It depends on how you feel about using and what you can truthfully say. "It is an adult decision," is the lamest sounding thing a kid can hear, but you may be stuck with it. Maybe repetition will sell it to him.

In any event, the gist here is that you want to help him to make the right decision--just hearing you say he is wrong will do nothing. But if he can't or won't come to the right conclusion, second best is to scare the bejeepers outta him.

Good luck.