How To Talk With Your Kids About Medical Marijuana

How To Talk With Your Kids About Medical Marijuana

Experts Encourage Honesty, Abstinence and Safety 

By Charmie Gholson

This article originally posted in The Midwest Cultivator January 2011 Issue

“I will not use scare tactics to deter you. Instead, having spent the past 25 years researching drug use, abuse and policy, I will tell you a little about what I have learned, hoping this will let you to make wise choices. My only concern is your health and safety.”

--Marsha Rosenbaum, director emerita of the San Francisco office of the Drug Policy Alliance and widely published expert on drug abuse, in a letter addressed to her son titled, “A Mothers Advice about Drugs.”

Now that medical marijuana is legal in Michigan, how can parents talk to their kids about the use of cannabis? How can parents who want to move away from the zero-tolerance orthodoxy of current U.S. drug control policy educate their children?

Rosenbaum, who was the principal investigator on National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded studies of heroin addiction, methadone maintenance treatment, MDMA (Ecstasy), cocaine, and drug use during pregnancy for 18 years, says today’s teenagers already a great deal about marijuana through direct experience and information from family, friends and the media.

“Half of American teenagers try marijuana anyway, and once they learn the dire warnings are not true, they begin to mistrust everything about drugs adults tell them,” she writes in a piece published on changetheclimate.org. “And why shouldn't they? Why should they listen at all if they can't believe what we tell them?

Our first priority ought to be gaining the trust of young people. We ought to offer a scientifically grounded education that allows them to learn all they can about drugs, alcohol and any other substance(s) they ingest.”

Here are some of Rosenbaums suggestions for talking to your teen:

·       Being high on marijuana or any drug often interferes with normal life, so using it - especially daily - effects your ability to learn.

·       If you think you may want to try marijuana, please wait till you are older. Adults with drug problems often started using at a very early age.

·      
The recreational use of marijuana is illegal, and the consequences of being caught are huge. Here in the United States, the number of arrests for possession of marijuana continues to climb. Adults are serious about "zero tolerance." If caught, you can be arrested, expelled from school, barred from playing sports, lose your driver's license, denied a college loan, and/or rejected for college.

·       Despite advice to abstain, teenagers may still choose to experiment. Teach moderation, peer evaluation (assessing your friends and their reliability) and common sense.

·       Encourage honest communication with and from your teenager, especially if he or she finds himself or herself in a situation where they need a ride due to their own or someone else’s drug (or alcohol) consumption. They should know to never under any circumstances, get into a vehicle with someone under the influence, they should know that they can call you any of your close friends any time, day or night, and be picked up- no questions asked and no consequences.

·      
Finally, you most likely already teach your children to think about the consequences of their actions before they act. Drugs are no different. Be skeptical and most of all be safe.

Derrik Harris is LMSW (Licensed Master of Social Work) who specializes in chemical addictions and other addictions in general. He works as a family therapist, working primarily with adolescents and families. Harris also encourages parents to be direct when discussing medical marijuana with their kids.

“I would tell them that, until recently, our culture has viewed marijuana as illegal, but that people have used it recreationally,” he told TMC, “ and only recently has the medical use become more mainstream.”

“Since it’s regarded as medicine now in our state and others, it should be looked at the same way any other medicine is looked at, like pain medication and it’s something that if people are going to use it medicinally it has to be prescribed by a doctor and used as intended by the medical profession.”

Harris also notes the unique way our culture is handling marijuana is that it’s backward from a lot of other medicines.

“With marijuana, as far back as a couple of generations, we’ve used it recreationally. Now it’s being used as medicine and it is confusing. People that use medical marijuana have to adhere to the laws and it can’t be seen as just a free for all.”

He also warns against unsupervised Internet research. “Everybody’s first reaction, especially for kids, is to go look online. Parents who are not quite sure how to talk to their kids may prematurely say, ‘why don’t you look it up online and you’ll find everything you need to know?’

The problem with that is there are quite few websites. Some explain the laws, some explain the perimeters of the use of the drug but it's really easy to find yourself on one of those websites with pretty pictures of buds and lights and seeds for sale. Parents probably should not let their kids have free reign to that kind of information until they first Google medical marijuana themselves and check it out.”