Now the chicken and the egg scenario enters the conversation. Which came first, the pot to ease his pain of failure or the failure at school as a result of the properties of pot.
This kid needs to know that he’s loved but that he is responsible for his success and failure. Dropping out of school is not an option. If he’s failing everything then he’s got to be pretty depressed. Pick a single subject and work with him. Start out slow. Success is as addictive as any drug. if he does well in one class then you have a plan in motion. Point out that if If he was making the grade before then he has the same potential as every other kid.
So, like what does the kid DO? I mean, his TV, Playstation, VCR, mp3 player, stereo, CD’s and social life are gone. I’m not saying that he should have perks, but a kid with too much time on his hands is not a good thing.
Does he work? How much of that stuff does he pay for on his own? Does he volunteer? A few days working his tale off at a soup kitchen serving the homeless (even if he’s escorted and overseen by Momma and Grandma and fifty other church members) might give him a different perspective in life.
I can’t help but think of all the people I’ve known in my life who have done some type of escape through drugs or alcohol, and most of them (minus the ones with serious chemical imbalances) felt that there was nothing in their lives, except for drugs or alcohol.
Give him something to do to fill his time, or he’ll find something to do to fill it.
It should be pointed out that that the setup described in the OP is ridiculously ameturish and unlikely to produce any real smokable pot. That’s another reason for the kid not to bother, but it’s doubtful that law enforcement would treat this as a case of serious traffiking.
Everybody knows marijuana is a gateway drug. Now he’s growing pot in the garage, next thing you know he’ll be growing cocaine, heroin, even LSD in little ceramic pots at Grandma’s house. And then he’ll become a terrorist.
Just an idle thought… wonder if you can contact a sympathetic policeman and arrange a “staged bust”? Free from any permanent stain on the record, but complete with an hour or two at the local lockup and a stern lecture on how they can legally seize his grandmother’s house and kick her out on the street because he has turned her home into a drug production facility? Just a little “scared straight” action - kid need never know that it was a production or that his family arranged it.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the weed should be decriminalized. But the kid needs to learn a couple of lessons here… you do not play with the fire of drug law, especially trafficking and production, and you do not jeopardize your loved ones in this way. If he does not get a proper appreciation of the potential legal woes now, sometime down the road he may get involved in an act that can’t be undone by a grandmother’s teary-eyed pleas to the local magistrate.
It’s a false analogy: failure to call the cops now does not equate to good old mom losing her home. Unless the kid has some heretofore undiscovered backroom operation wherein he is trafficking (i.e., 25 pounds or more), it seems that the forfeiture laws will not kick in. Because application of the forfeiture laws seems to be the only way mom will lose her house involuntarily, talking to the kid as a first step seems appropriate. I would also favor a discussion with mom wherein son impresses upon her the futility and stupidity of putting her house up as collateral for bail/attorneys fees in the event the kid eventually gets busted.
When they tried this on Arrested Development, it didn’t turn out so well. Of course, those weren’t real cops. . .