New York Times: A ‘Just Say No’ Dad’s Struggle in the Land of ‘Just Say Yes’

By Neal Thompson

(This originally appeared June 15, 2018 in the New York Times)

My older son was in eighth grade when he got home from a day of skateboarding, glassy-eyed and dopey, and fell asleep on the couch. For two hours. My wife and I sniffed around him as he snored, and barked at the same time: “Pot?!”

It was the end of our family’s innocence and the start of a yearslong battle against substances.

Our job as parents got even harder when the law turned against us. In 2012, with our boys o...