Advice on kids and drugs from yesterday's Dear Abby advice column.

Dear Abby:

I am employed by a national company to tutor high school students, one-on-one.

For various reasons, I suspect that one of my students -- with whom I meet every one or two weeks -- may be smoking pot.

From a professional perspective, I feel this is none of my business. From a personal perspective, and as a parent myself, I am agonizing over whether I should bring my suspicions to the attention of his parent.

If I were his parent, I would certainly want to know.

Then again, my suspicions could be wrong. What is the ethical thing to do?

Unsure in Concord, Calif.

Your student's welfare IS your business. It's refreshing to know that someone is debating the "ethical" thing to do these days. If media reports are accurate, they lead us to believe that ethics have gone the way of the dinosaur.

Before approaching your student's parent, talk to the boy about your concerns. His problem may be something other than pot. At least give him a chance to explain. However, if your suspicions persist, by all means tell his parent what you have told me. You'll be doing both of them a favor.

As a former tutor who worked with students I was sure were using drugs, I found the question and answer illuminating. It is indeed good that the tutor cared enough to ask the question, and that their first instinct was not to immediately rat out the kid to 1) the parents or 2) worse, the police.

Thinking of one high schooler I worked with, I did not bring up the issue with either him or the parents. Why? The kid -- a high-school junior -- had a couple of marijuana-leaf posters in his room, where his parents frequently entered. Right or wrong -- and I'm not claiming I'm right here -- I felt that his parents either knew about any pot use or didn't care enough to ask. Anyway, just my take on one student and drugs.

The Dear Abby post is here. Her ten-year-old appeal to legalize drugs is here.