[legion]

I had this happen to two friends in high school: nearly ten years later this is what their lives look like now:

One turned 18 his first semester in college. He blew his inheritence ($200,000) within that first on parties and drugs. He got kicked out of college after his first year. Last I heard, he is a full-time drug dealer hippie living in Montana.

One has had a series of minimum wage jobs. (I had counted him having had 35 jobs 8 years ago--at the age of 18.) He's been in and out of community college, although I can't say how many credits he actually has, if any. He's had two DUI's. Every few years, he makes an effort to "turn his life around". This lasts 6 months to a year before he's back in the same old patterns.

I can't speak for your situation, but in both of these the parents had enforced no discipline until they discovered them with some marijuana, then went straight to the police. They didn't take discipline from their parents seriously, even when it did involve the police. I remember the first guy mentioned above doing the weekly (or monthly--I can't remember) drug testing, and trying to make sure that his readings steadily increased. He actually started smoking more to accomplish this!

The bottom line for my two friends was that their parents didn't try to rein them in until they had already gotten out of hand.