It is his group of friends. It is his fault, but his friends make it acceptable for him to do it. Every situation is different, and it is really hard for a parent to know what to do.

Maybe a good therapist, maybe church, hunt more, fish more... There is no magic answer. Keep fighting for him.

And as others have said: Growing up isn't an easy thing to do.

I wouldn't suggest calling the police either. Pot is not taken too seriously by the CJ system anymore so the police don't either. So as to scaring him, it may have the opposite effect of showing him that this is not a serious matter.

As a general rule, the police see trouble with juveniles in two ways: parenting problems and police problems. This is still in the parenting problem stage, thankfully.

The suggestion that idle hands and bad friends are the roots of the problem has merit in my opinion. Fix these issues and you'll be half way there. Until then, pray, pray, pray and I'll be praying for you as well as many on ALdeer I'm sure.

I know him having the marijuana was probably a shock to ya'll, but it could be a LOT worse. Almost all kids go thru the experimental phase and almost all of them go on to be a successful adult. Don't get carried away with your anger and develop a bigger problem in the family than it actually is.

X2

You care or you wouldn't be asking. Just keep being the parent.

What did you do with the pot?

I think some people forget what they did as teenagers. Some of yall must have gotten hit on the head by that 16lb pinecone several dozen times the way you act like you were a perfect little angel in high school. Maybe your parents should have sent you packing after every mistake you made in high school. On a real note though the thing I remember most from my childhood is every lesson my daddy tried to teach me and I revert back to those lessons now. Just remember your son is young, dumb, and full of come. He's going to make mistakes but he will always remember the lessons that you teach.

Geezus, you guys kill me. Ya'll are talking about tough love and rock bottom - to a 16 year old...for a dime bag. I would ground him, keep him close as possible, work his tail off, run his friends off that you think are influencing and show him more love than ever before.

Why in the absolute hell would you want government involved to solve your internal family issues? That is a LAST ditch effort because it means everything else has failed. Government doesn't solve issues, they create them more times than not.
Those militarystyle night time kid gets kidnapped camps are costly and they themselves have a host of issues such as abuse/cruel treatment. I would also suggest avoiding those because when he comes back those friends will still be here and the dynamics will likely be the same around him.

Some of you are making it out to be like the kid was caught with a glacier sized crack rock knocking over the local stopNrob

There is a lot of good advise on here. Beer Belly and Doekiller are spot on in my opinion. I suggest job and new hobbies.
I would add that if your older children that you mentioned his brother&sister are both now doing really well now I would have them talk to him.
It can be easier to take advise from a younger successful source than what a 16 year old might just label as controlling parents.

Make it so he just simply doesn't want to smoke weed through other things. I grew up in Southern California so essentially the weed capital and I've never smoked it once, just never had a desire or interest too because I've had interests in other things.

You want to try to avoid him seeing you as enemy because then the small scale weed battle might turn into an all out war.
Prayer helps I do agree but this is not a pray the pot away thing, it needs an active and focused approach.

In all seriousness, I went to military school for the same things your describing about your son. It was a very structured environment and has paid for itself ten-fold. Took me away from my schithead "friends" too.

http://www.riversidemilitary.com/NetCommunity/MissionStatement

Dear god that place is expensive.
$2600 to get some uniforms

Im pretty sure OP can find a solution that isn't closing in on $40K for one year.

Yeah I forgot to mention the cost part. I didn't pay for it. Thats what I got for smokin pot and acting a fool. Parents kept telling me they were gonna send me to military school for a couple years. Never believed them. Then one day, we loaded up and they sure enough dumped me off there. I guess they had to save up some money before they sent me.

Ya I guess different strokes for different folks.
I personally am a believer of going for the easiest,cheapest,most direct approach and getting as little outside sources(camps/cops) involved as possible.

A weekend camping I think would do wonders for the kid.

Be a parent like you are doing and use the truck as leverage to get him to act right. Truck, phone and computer is what they care about.

Did anyone mention the cell phone? If you're going to run his "bad" friends off, losing the cell phone privilege or a strict monitoring effort might be beneficial. Otherwise he'll be texting away. Additionally, there are app's that can be used to communicate in place of the traditional texting. Be aware of that as well.

As someone has already mentioned, it will take you lovingly and sincerely being involved in your son's day-to-day life in a 24/7 type of manner.

I've also heard of wayward sons confessing that the most impacting occurrence was when they saw their father's break down and simply ask "why". I'm not saying put on a big dramatic presentation. But, maybe a sincere heart-to-heart, withholding nothing talk with your son may be more impacting than you might realize.

In no way am I casting stones. I have the utmost respect for anyone daring to raise a child in this crazy hour in which we live.

We will pray as you pray, but let me encourage you to put some wise action along side of your prayers.

Please keep us posted. We are here for you!!!!

Alot of good kids smoke pot. With today's TV and music it's in their culture.
He's just like every other kid out there, he needs guidance and to realize what kind of friends to hang out with.
Honestly I'd rather find out my son was smoking pot rather than takin Adderall or Ritalin which a lot of parents force their kids to take. Being a youth sports coach ADD&ADHD kids that take these powerful stimulates are absolutely uncoachable. And it saddens me to see parents try and control a kids behavior with RX drugs. If by chance your or any of yall reading this have kids on these amphetamine salts you can pm me and I'll be more than happy to give you countless example of personal experience and experienceexperiences from friends I grew up with that are no longer here.
BrotherTurtle the best thing you can do is take time out of your life and put it towards his!!

I was asked why hundreds of times. I couldn't give a reason. Not that I didn't want to, I just honestly didn't know why I was doing it.

He doesn't sound like a bad kid at all to me, just a teenager doing what teenagers do. However you do handle it, it is important to let Jr. know that he can talk to you about anything going on in his life and you will still be there for him. I was a hardheaded pain in the ass as a teenager. Went through some of these same issues with my folks. I was blessed to have parents who cared about me and had my back, even if they were smacking me over the head for doing stupid stuff.

If you are going to look at a military school, look at Marion Military Academy. They get a lot of kids with behavioral issues and seem to do a pretty good job of keeping them straight.

They quit taking high school students the year I got sent. Its only a college now. Lyman-Ward is the only one in Bama taking high school. It's more of a boot camp/reform program than a school.