Hellobee Boards

Its pretty commonplace over here (not legal as such but it may as well be) so Id ignore it and go about my day.

There were a group of teens drinking, smoking weed and making lots of noise at 1am on the park behind my (old) house a few years back. I called the Police because the noise was annoying me and the Police told me they would attend and move them on if they had time but they had "real crime" to deal with first.

At the playground? I'd probably leave (I don't stick around smoking with LO) and then call Parks and Rec or the nonemergency line. Smoking isn't allowed in our park. I know and trust our local police, so that factors into my thoughts.

As for the parents wanting to know, well, sometimes that simply isn't true in my experience. And as for my child, in that situation, I'd definitely want to know, but I wouldn't be angry if someone called the police. Smoking pot on public property is pretty dumb. Hypotheticals are hard, but I think I'd want him to be shaken up a little. (And I trust our police would do that in a measured way.)

ETA: Just saw your update. If Parks and Rec is not responsible for the park and it isn't public property, I'd try to contact the landowner, like the HOA or whatever.

It would depend for me how close they were to actually smoking around the kids. My park has a baseball field and I've caught kids smoking around the field but it was far enough away where I didn't care. But if the smoke was blowing around the kids I would've said something. I guess u would treat it similar to someone smoking a cigarette. If my kid can inhale it because you are that close maybe pick a different spot.

I'd probably ignore it. Not that I wouldn't care, but more that I wouldn't want to deal with the stress of a confrontation.

I'd ignore it. If they were so close to the play equipment that I felt it was interfering with the kids play, I'd ask them to move further away from the play area.

I think part of my reason for not caring THAT much is that a bunch of parents smoke their cigarettes in our playground while the kids are there anyway. At least the teenagers are usually on the other side of the fence in the basketball court. I care equally about cigarette and pot smoke near me and my kid.

I would ask them to leave, let them know that it is disrespectful to smoke (anything) around children in a public space, and warn them that someone else might have called the cops.

I would be tempted to try to contact their parents but honestly I don't think I actually would.

I'd call the cops.

This is so interesting and makes me rethink my initial stance. I'm from (but no longer live in) a fairly dangerous city and many of the pot dispensaries are gang-owned and so there's a lot of gang violence associated with pot. So from my standpoint, people who are buying pot are enabling gang violence. So my initial thought is to call the cops (who probably wouldn't come because there is also a lot of gun violence in the town). A few years ago the cops wouldn't even respond to shots fired unless someone was actually shot.

But I can see where people are coming from. I actually think my reaction depends on how dangerous the city is. So if it were the city my parents live in, I'd call the cops. But if it was the city where I used to work, I'd probably tell them to leave.

I just don't feel the need to get involved or police the community - I'd ignore it assuming no real danger to myself or others was felt.

@runnerd: same.

Wouldn't think anything of it, unfortunately. We live in a city & country where it is not a crime to possess a small amount or smoke pot in public. There are approx 200 legal pot shops in Vancouver. I think its outrageous.

It would be unfortunate and annoying if they were smoking like ON the playground equipment or where little kids were playing, but I probably would just ignore it.

I am totally chuckling to myself over the votes for “confront them / get addresses / notify parents” – I mean, do you really think a bunch of teens smoking up in public are going to just give you their names, addresses and phone numbers? I dunno, just seems amusing to me to imagine.

I don't think I'd tell the cops under any circumstances because pot is so "common" now and I doubt they'd even do much. The me now would probably just ignore it--when my kid arrives I might change my tune and just say something to them/ask them to take it elsewhere

I would have said something and/or called the cops. If they weren't even trying to hide it then they need to have a wake up call that they're not invincible

If they were where kids are actively playing or trying to play I'd tell them to go somewhere else. If they were in a corner of a park, out of the way I'd ignore it, I don't really care what other people's teens do. If they were being assholes I'd call the police non-emergency number.

I wouldn't ask for their parent's info, what teenager is actually going to give that information out truthfully anyway?

I would and have called the cops. We also have a pretty intense Nextdoor group in my hood so I posted on there to keep an eye out because 1) small children play there, 2) it's a magnet for small time drug sellers to hang out there (I've reported a teen trying to sell too), and 3) the school bus stop is at our park and I do not want those dealers selling something cheap and dangerous like the synthetic weed Spice, which lots of kids are getting into bc it's cheaper than weed but soooooooooo dangerous!!! Our police will send a squad car or a community volunteer (retired cop or old people) in a squad car to patrol or just sit parked at the park when you call so it's worth it for me.

@gingerbebe: Wow, yeah somebody dealing drugs would be a very different story to me then a few kids smoking occasionally. I would absolutely leave and call the cops from somewhere else if that was happening.