Little Brother is Doing Weed and Drugs! HELP!

[Inpatient Outpatient]

Hello, I think you guys all remember me. I am doing pretty well with out pot and life is great but I recently found out that my little brother is into pot. More then I was. He told me he has smoked every day the past three weeks, hes tried acid, wants to try shrooms and even worse, he smokes tobacco mixed weed, which means its more additive, it was more then I ever did, I smoked the regular stuff and I was pretty into it, but this is worse I think.

He told me straight up, I think it's because I have done it before. He is acting like me when I was on it. He dislikes his family very much, doesn't want much to do with us, is gone for days on end and we don't know where, he is doing it with his friends, so I am guessing it's to fit in.

He's also very depressed, can't seem to find the fun, unless he's stoned. He horks and gags a lot. He is also very irritable, when he's not high is has very low patience.


I'm very sad that my 17 year old brother is following in my foot steps. I told my mother I "think" he's into drugs, even though I know he is. That was a mistake I think.

What should I do guys? I really don't know, I don't want him to hurt himself, like I hurt myself.

What do you guys think?

[Cannabis Rehab Admin]

Hi Nakisai

This is one of the toughest scenarios of all as although we have the power to sort ourselves out it is so much harder to do it for someone else, whether we like it or not it’s them that are ultimately responsible for themselves and only them who can make the decision to change. That said that’s not to say we can’t help at all, if they are receptive to it we can help a great deal, it all depends on how receptive they are, so we have to do all we can to make that as likely as possible. The fact that you have had experience with drugs as well does mean he is more likely to listen to you than a lot of other people, but even that is no garmented. I think the best thing you can probably do is try to deal with him in a way that is going to make him want to engage with you as much as possible, that means staying calm and collected and trying not to alienate him, personally I think you have got to win him over to your way of thinking mentally, I am not sure if you will be able to nag or badger him into it.

That said he is still quite young, maybe some young people are able to have their ass kicked into staying clean speaking metaphorically of course, although that is probably more of a parents role than yours, you could try that approach but that would mean having to tell your mom and like I say it would probably more her job than yours, it’s a tough one and although personally I would probably prefer to try to win him round as otherwise he may just continue to do it behind your back anyway, although I would probably prefer that approach he is still very young, maybe he does need a zero tolerance tough parenting approach.

Ok I think I have got my head around what I would do and it’s just what I would do I am not saying I am right or claiming to be any kind of authority, if we were talking about an adult then I don’t think you can apply too much pressure as they are ultimately responsible for themselves, but we are not, we are talking about someone who is below the age of 18 and as much as I like to catch the fly with honey rather than vinegar, kids getting into drugs can be a very bad thing, I think you need to do all you can to try to stop it and they may well need some pretty tough parenting when these kind of things happen. So with this in mind I would try the softly softly approach first, try to win him around, keep it just between you and him for now, see if you can mentally win the argument and get him to want to change, if this works then it will probably be the most effective way to deal with it, it’s always easier for someone to do something when they want to do it themselves. If after a few weeks it becomes apparent it’s falling on deaf ears and isn’t going to work then because of his age I think you are going to have to call for reinforcements and you, your mom and anyone else you can call upon in the family are going to have to get tough and tell him that it isn’t going to be tolerated and you will have to be as tough as you need to be. So that’s what I would do, first try the carrot and if it doesn’t work then try the stick, at least then you know you have probably done all you can.

Anyway that’s just what I would do, like everyone else here I am just an ex user and don’t claim to be an expert, at the end of the day we all just do in life the best we think we can and it is a very difficult situation, I am not sure if that has helped, but I hope it has.

Take care, thanks for posting and please keep us posted on how it goes.