Dear Laura,
Just want to write you a letter to thank you for all the good you are doing. Your response to my email and website helped me find a solution for my son Henry who is now at a Ozark Trails Academy in Missouri. For as much pain as you have endured your foundation is creating hope and direction for many of us living in “The Amsterdam of the Rockies”. I dropped Henry off Monday and spent hours listening to your webinars on my long drive home. Since discovery your website I’ve listened to many and feel like I’m an expert on marijuana now as you do.
Henry started dabbing heavily his sophomore year. He quit after mixing it with another drug last August and started up again in November. In February Henry, his therapist and myself made a plan to try to get him off marijuana and it didn’t work. It was actually Henry’s idea. So, therefore, I was going into pot shops buying his pot. I can’t begin to tell you what a failure of a mother I felt like going into those dispensaries but I was desperate and willing to try anything. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and tell them what a horrible drug this was and what this was doing to my child. Now, looking back I think the process was a good way for him to open up to rehab and take responsibility for his addiction. I by no means think other parents should try this, however.
Henry could not sleep unless he got high. His anxiety and depression were through the roof. He stopped going to school, wouldn’t keep a job, didn’t care if he got his license, lost weight and his hygiene was very poor. I had been told by several therapists he needed a higher level of care. Henry begged me to let him have his last season of HS hockey and not take that away from him. His dream of playing Junior hockey was taken over by his need for his next high. End of January he broke his finger in a hockey game. Two weeks later he tore his ACL. The rehab I had picked out for him no longer could take him due to his injury and surgery. I had to start from square one. I went to Johnny’s Ambassadors website and started going down the list. There I found “Parents Love Their Teens” and a wonderful woman named Brande Sue. She listened to my story and recommended and called several rehabs for me.
On the way to Missouri Henry was actually asking me to drive south an hour to get him his last high. Gawd! Did you know there aren’t any pot shops after you leave Denver heading East. He was trying with all his might to find one and no luck! When we drove over the Kansas Missouri border he threw his dab pen out the window. I know he has a long road ahead. He will be there nine months to a year.
Just as I am passionate about informing parents about Dyslexia I now have a new passion for telling my story about marijuana. I do believe the schools had a place causing him shame and not telling us he was dyslexic. That was his first hit to his confidence. His Father abandoning him and I had the perfect storm. If I have learned anything and there is still much more to learn I would have spent more time with the things that went right rather than things that went wrong.
I know many kids up here in our community that are probably in the same boat as Henry, and feel, it’s just a matter of time before this explodes. This pot is highly addictive.
You did good Laura. You did good. Thank you and God Bless.
Jenny