This isn't the first time someone from my circle has been busted and let off, so I'd say I've found most cops realize that a drug charge pretty much eliminates any hope that you should get into a respectable college and have anything of a future, and so, if you're under 18, they'll pretty much go easy on you, unless you do something completely fucked up.
Possesion of marijuana won't necessarily bar you from a decent college. Also, if it did, most cops wouldn't be concerned about that. I'm kind of surprised he didn't write you up for paraphernalia. Also, you or your friend shouldn't have consented to be frisked or had the car searched. There didn't seem to be any exigent circumstances to perform a warrantless search.
What puzzles me is that the officer went to such lengths to conduct a search, but not bother to follow up with citations pursuant to the search. He must have been thinking he was going to find something bigger. Or maybe he was just trying to harrass a couple of numb skull kids...no offense.
