High Times Kid of the Year

Teen in pot essay says he accepts consequences
By BRENT CHAMPACO News Tribune

TACOMA, Wash. — Ian Barry says he wasn’t trying to be a martyr when he lit a marijuana joint last week at Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor, nor was he trying to pull a stunt.

Simply put, the 17-year-old junior wanted to drive home the message of his persuasive essay: Marijuana doesn’t deserve its negative stigma and should be legalized.

On Friday, Barry told The News Tribune that he knew what the consequences would be for his bold tactics, but he was willing to accept them.

After his speech Tuesday, he was arrested and sent to Remann Hall juvenile detention center in Tacoma. He was expelled from school. (Read the essay here at the site of television station KIRO.)

He says he fully accepts his punishment. He faces misdemeanor charges of unlawful drug possession after police found the container that he carried the joint in and that contained marijuana residue. He also understands this will go on his record.

“I see myself as someone who holds himself to a high moral value,” Barry said.

Barry will meet with Peninsula administrators to determine whether he should be allowed to finish classes. He said the joint was key to making his point and starting a dialogue on the leglization of marijuana.

"As Sir Isaac Newton said, ‘Every action has an equal and opposite reaction,’ ” Barry said. “I don’t think there would have been another way I could have gotten this reaction.”

[SLOW CLAP] This kid is going places. I can see him writing some thought inspiring essay that lands him in a prestigious school despite being expelled from HS and then flunking out of that school because he smoked too much pot. Then he'll go to community college for a while, transfer to the Univ. of Colorado and end up getting a degree in philosophy that he'll end up doing nothing with. Enjoy the journey young man!

P.S. - That is the kid. Nice tie-dye shirt and do rag. You'e got a lot of ultimate frisbee in your future.