hbarker1

our son from a young age was considered mildly ADD ADHD and possibly biPolar . He was given ridoline at abut age 8 . against my better wishes,
only took it when went to school the rest of the time we had our hands full with trying to occupy him after school and on weekends.and keep order in our home.
My son at about age 16 had started smoking marijuana. as a lot of teens do,
all the sudden things in the home and at school got better, he told us he had not been taking his pills rather tossing them out. So again,, against our better wishes we did not make a big deal out of the marijuana use. and life totaly changed for all of us in the home,.
No more big fights,. no more disobedience , grades improved, and my son was not walking arouund like a zombie as hi did on ridolin .

My son is now 19 years old, he and a friend made a bad judgment and stole some items for his friends truck from a building,,, that led to Burglury of a building charge !!
He has received a 5 year defered ajudication sentence , we have sentencing friday AM..
We have a seriouse problem now,,,, He will be tested for marijuana. and the first timie he test + for it ,, will constitute breaking his probation , at that poiint we all know whats goin to happen,,,, hes goin to jail for the rest of his 5 years,,,,,
HELP HELP HELP !!!
can we request that the lawyer ask the judge not to test him>?>
I dont know what to do ,, I know whats goin to happen, if he stops smoking marijuana he will probly drink instead.... I would rather him smoke pot all day that to be a damn drunk !!
by the way ,, we live in the great state of Texas,, where they have yet to realise marijuanas medicinal greatness.

Any help or information would be greatly apreciated.
thanks in advance.

parental blues,.

Andrew87

This should probably be in the legal issues forum, and I'm not sure what your son's mental health dx's have to do with your question, but anyways...

There is an issue with the chain of events that you've described here. If he hasn't yet had his sentencing hearing, how do you know that he has a five year deferred sentence?

However, probation officers won't violate someone for failing the first drug test, reason being that you cannot be charged with a violation of probation for a crime that you committed before you were on probation. If your son admits to smoking weed before he was placed on probation, his PO will give him a month or two for the weed to clear out of his system, and then start with his random/monthly/whatever tests. A problem will arise if your son passes one test demonstrating that he is clean AND THEN fails one at a later date.

If what you said about the five year deferment is true, then all your son has to do is stay out of trouble from this point on and he will not go to jail. It won't matter if he pops hot on his first UA, just tell him to come clean about it with his probation officer, and abstain from there on out.

No. As I said, failing his first test will not be looked upon horribly. It's the subsequent ones that matter.

__________________
The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants. -- Albert Camus

hbarker1

we know thats what he is getting , 5 years .
It was a plea deal between our lawyer and the DA.
well , clean, meaning he will soon have to stop his use of marijuana,.
and soon after shall begin all the problems we used to have ,.
maybe he will move out soon,

Broliette

I think you would get a more accurate answer to your question if this was in the Legal forum as Andrew pointed out.

__________________

newlyformedmind

Not true. I got a D.W.I. and I failed my first drug test (it was a saliva test). I had to appear in court for violating the terms of my probation. I figured since I don't have much of a record, the judge would give me a break. Nope. He tossed my ass in jail for a weekend. It sucked.

Andrew87

It may not be totally inexorable at this point - try to get him involved in things. Have him pay you rent (which means getting a job) if he doesn't already. Or try to convince him to give college a shot. Help him find things to occupy his time. I know that in the end, "you can only lead a horse to water" but I'd guess it's worth a chance...

joltting

you got suckered for that ADHD like my mother did when I was 5 or 6. I still can't believe kids are still being labeled under this non sense. Kids will be kids, there's nothing wrong with that. Kid's hate school, so they don't pay attention to there teacher. So the teachers and the doctors thinks there's something wrong with the kid, due to his lack of attention. Then think the only way to care him, is to drug the hell out of him.

I'm 25 now, and still remember throwing up after taking pills upon pills simply because I was labeled adhd. Yet all the doctors I went to said, that the throwing up was the flew. I shortly stopped taking the pills the doctor gave me, and took up smoking marijuana.

I've yet seen a teacher complain about my attention problem. Heck I even get straight A's in my Master's Computer Science degree.

Back to topic:

I don't think you can request to not take his drug test. I could be wrong, but if he is charged with burglary there's not much you can do. The simple fact(and I know you don't wanna hear this) is he is going to go to jail for the 5 years. I know it's a horrible thought, but if he was caught he's in big trouble.

ITG

Joltting- I think you are under a bit of a misconception. Very often, doctors DO misdiagnose kids just being kids as kids with ADHD or ADD, but that doesn't mean that there aren't people out there who don't have them. They are legitimate mental disorders, and not "nonsense."

Additionally, from the information you gave us, it seems very possible that you DO have ADHD and simply switched off from using the prescribed medicines and started self-medicating with marijuana, which many people who suffer from ADHD say help them at least as well as ritalin with nowhere near the side effects. After all, you simply told us that the meds made you throw up, not whether or not they helped you with your attention; a lot of times, in the case of a misdiagnosis, ritalin will actually serve to create the symptoms of ADHD. Maybe you have it, maybe you don't- I'm just saying, given the information you gave us here, it doesn't really mesh with your claim that ADHD is nonsense.

Also, I'm surprised. I don't have any experience with the probation system, so I always thought they only did drug tests if that was part of the initial crime. Guess you learn something new every day, huh?

__________________

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.

Hash Man

[/quote]Also, I'm surprised. I don't have any experience with the probation system, so I always thought they only did drug tests if that was part of the initial crime. Guess you learn something new every day, huh?[/quote]

it depends on what kind of probation your on sometimes they don't, but with supervised proabation they always will atleast in my experiences.

Buzzby

Do you live in a medical marijuana state? If so, you should get your son signed up with the program ASAP, if you can. They might (or might not) allow him to use marijuana while on probation if he's a legitimate medical marijuana patient. If you don't live in a medical marijuana state, there's not a lot you can do. Has your son ever tried not using marijuana recently? It might be that he has outgrown the problems that required that he smoke it.

__________________