Hey, Cherie!

I did a really stupid thing and now I am paying for it. I am a 16-year-old guy, and my parents caught me smoking pot at home. They were walking past my room and smelled the odor. The next thing I knew they were in my room and grilling me with all these questions, though they weren't yelling at me. Where did I get it? (I wouldn't say.) Where did I get the money to buy it? (My allowance). How often did I smoke? (I wouldn't say.) When I go to my friends' houses, is that where I get it? (I wouldn't say.)

I don't want them calling my friends' mothers and fathers, and I just wish they would get out of my business. I like it, I'm not hurting anyone, and it's not like taking E — I know kids who have done that. I think that marijuana should be legal; it is messed up that it isn't.

What did my folks do? They told me that I wasn't getting an allowance anymore, and if I wanted money I should get a job. They told me the door to my room was to be open now, not closed. I couldn't get a driver's license without passing a hair drug test, and they were going to talk to my friends' parents.

I can live with all of those things pretty much — except the last one — even though I want to get money out of my own bank account to buy a new Xbox game. I really would like your opinion: Are they being fair?

— Busted at Home

Hey, Busted!

Sort of messed up the start of your new year, huh? What in the world were you thinking? That they wouldn't find out? Honestly, I gotta question your judgment, and not just about the smoking. Actually, on second thought, I know why you were smoking at home. You wanted to be busted! Otherwise, no one would do something that dumb.

So, now you're busted. Your parents are aware. And it feels to me like they've taken all the right steps with you. They can't handcuff you to a doorknob nor be with you 24/7, but they don't have to participate in helping you do something they disagree with. And which, by the way, I disagree with too.

Without getting into big issues of social policy — this is, after all, a teen column — I am hugely opposed to marijuana use by teens. If it were me, I'd be doing all the same things your parentals are, including talking to your friends' parents. Sorry, Busted. You decided that getting stoned at home was the right thing for you to do. They're going to react how they react. And that's just the way it is. Deal with it. You want things to go back to how they were before? Stop the 420.

Hey, Cherie!

Do you have any good ways to stick to New Year's resolutions? I want to lose 30 pounds, get better grades and get a boyfriend in 2009.

— Plenty of Resolutions

Hey, Plenty!

No. But maybe you could do it in baby steps. Start with losing five pounds, raising your grade in the class you're doing worst in and going out on some actual dates with respectable guys. Baby steps, baby steps. One after another after another. And then, suddenly, you're where you want to be.

Cherie Bennett is a best-selling author of books for teens and young adults. Visit her website at www.cheriebennett.com. To find out more about Cherie Bennett and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.