MOTHER OF TEEN WHO TURNED IN PARENTS FOR POT 'BAFFLED'

TAKOMA PARK, Md. (AP) --When 16-year-old Kerry Tucker marched into the
Takoma Park Police Department clutching photos of her mother's basement
marijuana garden, she never anticipated the impact of her actions.

Kathleen Marie "Kitty" Tucker said she is still baffled over why her
daughter did what she did.

Police seized 69 marijuana plants, grow lights, rolling papers and
marijuana stored in canisters and boxes in their master bedroom. Tucker and
her husband, Robert Jason Alvarez, were charged with marijuana possession,
manufacturing, and conspiracy to manufacture and possess marijuana.

They pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor and received six months
probation, $150 fine and a 10-day jail sentence, suspended.

Tucker, 55, is an attorney and an antinuclear activist who pursued the case
of nuclear whistle-blower Karen Silkwood. Alvarez lost his high-level job
at the U.S. Department of Energy A judge ordered Kerry to have no contact
with her parents, forcing her to stay with family friends.

Tucker speculated in an interview with The Washington Post for Friday
editions that Kerry was getting a double message - School teachers saying
drugs were bad, while at home, her mother was smoking a homegrown marijuana
joint three times a day for migraines and fibromyalgia, a neuromuscular
disorder and telling her children that marijuana has gotten a bad rap in
this country

"I tried to teach them there is more evidence of danger from alcohol and
tobacco and drugs like speed than from marijuana," Tucker told The Post in
an interview in her attorney's office.

Tucker said a fight over Kerry not showing up at a driver's education class
precipitated her daughter's actions.

Kerry Tucker was allowed to come home in September, under the unusual
condition that no one talk about the drug cultivation or arrest.

Despite the arrest and its aftermath, Tucker is unrepentant about her use
of the illegal drug. She said she's angry at her daughter and only angry at
herself "because I failed to teach her why I was using it"