cannabisnews.com: The Parenting Problems Of Pot!





The Parenting Problems Of Pot!
Posted by FoM on August 12, 1999 at 08:27:48 PT
By Darryl E. Owens
Source: Lexington Herald Leader
Most mothers and fathers never tell their children not to use marijuana -- even though today's supply is more potent and more readily available to kids.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- In the '70s, singer Rick James professed in song his love for Mary Jane, a thinly veiled hipster reference to marijuana.These days, middle schoolers fire up joints for a morning buzz. It's reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic and ``reefer.''That their teens are smoking pot would upset most parents. But a new national survey shows parental disdain over marijuana use often loses something in the translation.The survey released last month by the Hazelden Foundation in Minneapolis found that 98 percent of parents would be distressed if their teens tried pot, and 86 percent have talked to their kids about the drug. Yet, only 40 percent advised their kids against indulging. Just one in five parents stressed that marijuana is illegal.``This is a classic failure to communicate,'' says Carol Falkowski, a senior research analyst for Hazelden, a non-profit organization that provides treatment, education, and prevention services for drug dependency.The Hazelden survey, which measured parents' attitudes and practices relative to teen-age marijuana use, is the latest in the recently reignited marijuana debate. Recent months have seen the release of studies validating the medicinal value of marijuana and waffling on its nature as a ``gateway'' drug -- one that precedes the abuse of more dangerous drugs.A report last month from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University concluded that children 12 to 17 who smoke marijuana are 85 times more likely to use cocaine than those who do not.That's a haunting proposition when you consider that of the 182,000 teens and children who entered treatment in 1996 for substance abuse, according to that report, nearly half -- 48 percent -- were admitted for marijuana abuse or addiction.Why the rise in juvenile marijuana abuse?Perhaps, say experts, children are hazy about the status of marijuana. The president tried it. Politicians ponder decriminalizing it. Advocates claim medicinal value. ``If it's medicine, kids figure how can it be harmful?'' Falkowski says.In parents' own pastSo why aren't parents talking to their kids about pot? The reason may be simple enough.Of the parents Hazelden surveyed, 41 percent once smoked marijuana. Many parents probably sucked a few puffs from a joint, giggled and still managed to reach middle class. They might not welcome pot use, but the notion that they did it without negative consequences may dampen the intensity of their cautions to children.Things are different today. In the past, adolescents discovered pot in their late teens or 20s. Now, children too young to get into a theater to see certain movies without an adult can turn to their locker neighbor for a joint, or name another child who can supply one.Pot use among eighth-graders increased from 9.1 percent in 1995 to 11.3 percent in 1996, according to a recent survey. Among 10th-graders, marijuana use climbed from 17.2 percent to 20.4 percent during the same period.The way pot is consumed also has changed. In addition to hand-rolled cigarettes, teens smoke ``blunts.'' A blunt, says Dr. Scott Farmer, chairman of the department of psychiatry at Florida Hospital in Orlando, is a 5-inch cigar in which the tobacco is cored out and replaced with marijuana.Blunts are mentioned in many popular rap songs, and Farmer says the music has helped accelerate the migration of the method into middle class America by romanticizing pot use.Most troubling, though, is that pot packs a bigger wallop today than it did 30 years ago. The level of tetrahydrocannabinol -- the substance in marijuana that produces the high -- measures 40 to 100 times more potent than in the pot that was distributed years ago.By today's standards, the pot parents once smoked ``would be considered ditch weed,'' Falkowski says. ``Stronger potency means faster progress from first use to problem use.''Dangerous risksProblem use portends grave implications such as impaired short-term memory, stunted intellectual and emotional growth, and increased risk of unprotected sex.Parents must speak up, experts say. It's one thing to abhor drug use, but it is quite another to clearly say so. And, according to Hazelden's poll, parents aren't saying the right things.Farmer says parents often misstep by discussing drugs at an ``overly abstract philosophical level'' or ``insulting their children by addressing the issue in black and white -- `It's against the law, don't do it' -- and close the discussion before the child can be valued as a thinking member of the household.''Perhaps the most powerful way to immunize children against drug abuse, he says, is to value the child and his opinions.Listen to your child. Let him outline his current impressions on drug use. Draw some examples from his experience.Maybe he knows of a star athlete who smokes pot, a scenario that contradicts messages that drugs impair performance. Acknowledge that his conclusion is derived from observation, and inject your views about the hazards of drug use.Here parents need to clearly outline rules and consequences. Just more than half of parents (55 percent) in the Hazelden survey gave their children any disciplinary consequences related to pot use.``Kids have to have a reason to say no,'' says Adele Kempe, supervisor of the family program at Hanley-Hazelden Center at St. Mary's in West Palm Beach. ``Parents can provide that by saying they disapprove of it and that there will be clear consequences so the child can factor that in when making their decision regarding marijuana.''By Darryl E. OwensKNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICEPublished Thursday, August 12, 1999in the Herald-Leader Parental Waffling May Boost Teens' Marijuana Usage-7/27/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2232.shtml
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Comment #8 posted by mR.DrUgGiE on July 20, 2001 at 10:21:53 PT:
aDdiCtiON
marijuana is a drug in which i use to sleep...i'm won't deny i don't like drugs...i thank god for creating marijuana. For if there was no marijuana i wouldn't be able to sleep at night..sMoKe OnE fOr ThA nAtiOn
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Comment #7 posted by lookinside on April 15, 2001 at 09:30:07 PT:
sanity?
hmmm...it took giberish(obviously a rocket scientist) a YEARto come up with that response? well thunk out! LOLOL
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Comment #6 posted by giberish on April 12, 2001 at 09:45:47 PT:
liars
marijuana is addictive just crack or herion the fifteen that wrote in is a very good speller wink wink looks like marijuana strikes again keep smoking you'll be even smarter in a year.....DUMB $$
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Comment #5 posted by Bryan Brown on April 03, 2000 at 15:28:58 PT:
Marijuana: How I feel about it
I want to write this message as strait forward and honest as I can. Being only 15, I realize that my parents and others from the older generation have seen at least one person that has destroyed their life using drugs, and how it all started at marijuana. From my experiences with marijuana, I've learned that a perfectly good-hearted, moral, and Godly life can be lived while using marijuana. I smoke marijuana, but not for the little giggles and the "munchies", that phase dies out. I'm only 15, and I've noticed I'm far more mature than most kids in my grade. I've also realized how chemicalized cigarettes are. I've really noticed my musical talents are outstanding, I'm an all-star pitcher. After smoking marijuana, cigarretes taste like your smoking train smoke. I also want to clarify one thing, If one of my friends even asked me to try some cocaine, shrooms, ecstasy, or anything. I don't think I could call them a true friend anymore. I don't want to make this too long, I just want you to understand I'm being totally honest in every opinion I'm making. I also want to know why was the government was so scared when they realized back in the 1920's, that the hemp industry was competing with the cotton industry. Why did they lie and say that marijuana was "Killer Weed" that makes people crazy. That's a 100% lie. Now they have us killing ourselves using cigarettes and drunk driving. Why is their a liquir store on every corner where I'm from. It's starting to make me wonder. Why does a perfectly normal person, that just happens to breathe in precious herbal medicine evry now and then, have no chance of making it in this society. so in a way, I don't feel like I have freedom. And being an african american, I know the government is not perfect. Because if they were, my ancestors wouldn't have had to fight for their lives, just to be able to sit on the front of a damn bus. Tell me, why should I believe the government when they tell me marijuana is so harmful. Please, Please, If I'm not asking too much, I would really like a response. I could understand If I don't get one though, you'd probably think I'm making all of this up.   
http://www.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on August 12, 1999 at 12:48:00 PT:
Excellent!
Jean that was excellent! Your children are very fortunate to have you as their Mother! Ah the wisdom of motherhood. I wish more Mom's would see that is the correct way of discussing drug and alcohol use with their children.Peace, FoM!
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Comment #3 posted by Jeaneous on August 12, 1999 at 12:38:02 PT:
Children and Pot
As a mother of 3 teenagers I have already seen two of my children experiment with pot and booze. I do not approve of them using it, but as a mother I chose not to punish them but to explain to them the hazards of using "any" chemicals at their ages. I chose to talk with them until I felt they had a true understanding of what using will do to a young brain forming.I found that talking and explaining did make them realize that maybe they shouldn't be using these substances, especially booze. They no longer experiment with those substances and I know if I had punished them and demanded them to stay away from any experimentation, that as teens...of course they would do exactly as they were told not to do.I think many parents would prefer not to discuss drug and alcohol use with their children because they might have to admit what they experimented with. I am not fearful of sharing what I did with my children for it does give them more information to make their own decisions. Again being truthful is the key and to let them know that as parents we are not perfect and they should never feel that they are expected to be perfect either. 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on August 12, 1999 at 09:41:14 PT
Thanks Doctor Dave
Most mothers and fathers never tell their children not to use marijuana -- even though today's supply is more potent and more readily available to kids. I believe parents don't tell their children about the dangers of pot because they would probably want them to smoke a joint then drink a beer. The potency issue would mean that if you smoked a joint you would be tripping if the percentages were correct. This is a reefer madness article for the modern day. Children shouldn't do any mind altering substances but unless we keep young people busy they will resort to drugs for entertainment I believe.
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Comment #1 posted by Doctor Dave on August 12, 1999 at 09:25:33 PT
Emotion has taken over facts
I think everyone reading this realizes how misinformed Darryl Owens is.40 to 100 times more potent than pot from a few years ago? I'd certainly like to see this superweed that has 120%-1300% THC - it defies math.And kids who try pot are 85% more likely to try cocaine? Or is it that kids who try cocaine are 85% more likely to try pot? Correlation doesn't prove causation.- Doctor Dave
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