My son is an athlete and doing better in school than in the recent past. He makes friends easily and has self confidence. He gets along with his teachers at school and his coach loves him. But, I have seen some odd behaviour at times - weekend evenings - but no smell of marijuana or alcohol. I just found two butane lighters in his room. Should I worry?

Possibly... he could be huffing... or he could just be a firebug. I too can't figure legitimate reasons for a non-smoker child to carry a lighter.

If he's doing good and school and isn't acting out then I wouldn't worry. He might just be a pyro and like to play with lighters. Or maybe he does smoke and he's just hiding it from you as to not disappoint you. But I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Why not ask him about the lighters? If it is nothing, he should be able to explain it easily.

I would ask him. In high-school before I started smoking I never carried lighters, so I really don't see a reason for a non-smoker to carry a lighter.

I would just ask.

Rick

Another scenario is that he's smoking pot, or hash (same thing, but lit in a pipe). He probably doesn't have his own stash, but gets a joint or a cube of hash occasionally or more than occasionally from someone in school. He has the lighters because he doesn't smoke it with the supplier, and will smoke it on his own or with friends at a later time and needs the lighter(s) for that time.

We could throw out possibilities and different scenarios all day, heck I could even have fun with it but the fact is that there are numerous things he could be doing or could not be doing with a lighter.

Narrow it down! Ask him about it.

Rick