Am I eternally hopeful or in denial....?

[Silent Chrleader]

Hey, Jeff.

You can put away your flameproof suit. You make a very good point and I do not disagree with you at all.

Actually, I believe that drugs should be legalized, regulated and taxed. Not because I think they are OK, but because I believe the "war on drugs" has been a hugely expensive and unsuccessful exercise! I don't think it is helpful to treat drug addicts as criminals. In doing so, we create the criminals we are trying to avoid, because these people become hardened criminal in prison and then we loose them on society! And alcohol does almost as much harm as other illegal drugs and yet it's legal. This makes no sense IMHO.

As for my sitch with S17, I will take some time to give some serious thought about that one. Our C (who has a 30+ year background with the dept. of corrections) has been pushing with S17 the idea that "illegal" is a good boundary to not go beyond. Because S17 has also expressed a lack of healthy fear for other things, like gangs, C has a lot of real concern for S17 and has been working hard on getting him to recognize and accept this boundary.

Also, because of my family history with alcoholism, I am leary of enabling that.......but perhaps it might not be a bad idea to allow him limited drinking at home if he gets a job and can thereby pay for his own booze......and it reinforces the idea of independence and responsibility for self when you are the one bearing the cost of your decisions. Yep, I'll give that one more thought.

Thanks, Jeff, for your input and support. You're a gem!!

[[[[[[hugs]]]]]]