Admittedly I only taught high school for six years before I came to the conclusion it was a profession other people wanted for me more than I wanted for myself, but these are the kids, by and large, that I used to teach. To be clear and honest, though, my kids were the best part of teaching - even the struggling ones, imo, even the ones who fought with me, cussed at me, and threatened me (once in writing, once with a knife). And sometimes the struggling ones were even the best of the best when I'd see one make a really significant healthy lifestyle change. Success out of failure is huge. Unfortunately, the two surest fire ways I saw the change to making positive choices forced on kids was by way of juvie/institutions and pregnancy.

x2 on trying to find activities or an alternative school program that will engage him more positively. I managed to help correct some of these problems in kids by getting them into classes that better matched their abilities, or alternative school programs (online or voc-tech) that better suited their interests or learning styles.

The marijuana thing is tough, though, because if the kid has constructed the mindset that "I can do anything high" a "cooler" school program stands to still just be cooler if he's high.

I also helped correct some of the all day, every day nature of some of my dope smokers by busting them. Can't say that they were "cured" of it, but they tuned it down and at least kept it out of their school days. A few were new enough to it that they did choose to quit. Mandatory 10 days for coming to class messed up, juvie if they were still holding (felony possession). Even if CA doesn't prosecute for possession in public, I would think that bringing it on school grounds would be a whole other story. That's a federal offense, I believe. Federal law still trumps state law.

I'd suggest mom get in touch with his teachers and ask them to keep their eyes and noses out, request they be vigilant with the information and bust the kid even if the Visine has kicked in. Most of my kids I got by smell, although a couple of times I had them come in sooooo messed up that I could have used their eyes to replace my broken tail light, and it was easy to make the determination.

They probably have a quiet code at the school. Ours was simply to email discipline instead of the nurse with "So-and-so isn't feeling well." It typically took security about my next sentence and a half of instruction to show up. It's actually a pretty small window to make "You're unquestionably high" stick, like an hour-90 minutes (I got this from both our school nurse and the cops on campus).

I wouldn't just evict him. Someone above mentioned how parenting has changed. A lot of things have changed in the kids' lives. I never saw that eviction was an effective tool. I had a good number of students whose parents did this. It only meant that the kids contributed to the population of homeless teenagers in town. They took to couch surfing and used being thrown out to vilify their parents and justify continuing with the poor choices they were making (even though it was backwards logic to do so).

In short, 1) can the parent and child get together on what the kid needs to make the change? If yes, great, keep working at it and hope to be closer when it works out;

No? Then,
2) Get the school involved and let him start getting more consequences from "the system" ie the school and juvie detention;

3) If he's still a minor and all else fails, pack his ass up and have him sent to an out of state residential rehab for teens (I had a lot of kids going back and forth to places in both Utah and Texas.)

Just some reflection on working with at-risk youth for several years. I'm going to repeat mom needs to get a plan in order with his teachers and school admin. Though he might be truant a lot of the time, school is probably still a hub for his life, and it remains a good place to initiate change for the child.