If you smoke pot, is it ok for your teen to do it, too?

Full Article

If you smoke pot, is it ok for your teen to do it, too?

By Michaela L. Duckett – October 18, 2011

Font Size:

Share:

Good morning Qcity! The weatherman says we will see a mostly sunny start to the day, but this afternoon clouds will move in as showers develop later in the day. Expect a high around 78° and lows around 62°.

Here’s what’s brewing in the news:

Are parents too lax on teen marijuana use?

It’s not uncommon for teenagers to ignore the anti-drug messages they hear at school, at church or at home. After giving in to curiosity, peer pressure or the urge to use drugs as a means of escape, many teenagers find themselves hooked.

Daily marijuana use among young adults is at its highest levels since 1991, and today’s pot is much stronger and addictive, reports USA Today.

Peter Delany of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration calls recreational marijuana use among teens and young adults “the biggest drug problem in the United States."

Delany believes the dangerous trend is fueled, in part, by parents who fail to take a stand against their teen's pot usage because they are uncomfortable telling their children not to use it, often because the parents have or continue to smoke pot themselves.

QUESTION: If you smoke pot, is it ok for your kids to do it too?
***

Woman takes on Facebook

A Mississippi woman says Facebook has violated federal wiretap laws and is suing the company in federal court. Brooke Rutledge of Lafayette County, Miss, alleges that Facebook continued to track her online activity, even when she wasn’t logged on the site. Facebook has admitted that in the past, it inadvertently tracked users after they logged out, but has since fixed the problem. Facebook denies Rutledge’s allegations, asserting the problem was fixed before her lawsuit was filed. (Read more)
***

Group of women arrested for being serial rapists

Three women were arrested in Zimbabwe this weekend and charged with rape attacks against men. Police say the women are suspected in a string of assaults that occurred over the past two years, during which male hitchhikers were targeted and raped. The women were arrested after their car was involved in an accident and 33 condoms containing semen were allegedly discovered in their possession. The women, all in their mid-20s, have been charged with 17 counts of aggravated indecent assault. Prosecutors say the counts were for each of the 17 men who have positively identified the women as having sexually assaulted them in 2010 or 2011. "Since Monday, 17 men came and positively identified the women as having raped them," a police official in Harare who refused to be identified told CNN. "Most of the men said the women would offer a drink either laced with something to tranquilize them or were forced at gunpoint." (Read more)
***
Sweet Revenge

A Chicago wife is charged with domestic battery after allegedly attacking her husband with cupcakes over the weekend. The fight between Dawn Montesdeoca, 50, and her husband Arturo Montesdeoca, 56, reportedly began as a verbal disagreement and quickly escalated to a physical altercation. “The woman struck the husband about the head with her hands and then commenced to hit him with cupcakes,” the Chicago Police Department said in a statement. When police arrived, they found the husband with icing smeared icing on his head and clothes. The wife was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery. (Read more)
***

Sesame Street invaded by porn

Sesame Street’s YouTube channel was shut down over the weekend after hackers took over the site and replaced the videos with pornography. On Sunday, visitors to the site saw hard core porn instead of Big Bird and Elmo for about twenty minutes. The channel, which has nearly 150,000 subscribers, was back up by Monday. It is still unclear how the hacking happened. No one has come forward to claim responsibility. (Read more)
***

Decriminalization of Domestic Violence

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but it seems that once city in Kansas is giving up the fight. As of October 11, 2011, a misdemeanor assault towards a partner or family member – including any physical violence without a weapon, threats, intimidation, or estrangement from the home – no longer “exists” in Topeka. The City Council repealed the city’s Domestic Violence ordinance, erasing the domestic abuse law from its books, because they said the local government could no longer afford to keep spouse batterers behind bars or away from their victims. They want the county government to bear the cost for doing so. Now, domestic violence only prosecutable by the state as a felony (and only if a weapon is used), but the state insists the responsibility of enforcing the law falls on the city. Thus, eighteen jailed suspects awaiting prosecution have been sent home from county jails, free to go back to whatever behavior put them there in the first place.