WHEN IT COMES TO LEGAL MARIJUANA, PARENTS NEED NEW SCRIPTS
By Claire Kaufmann | Rebrandingcannabis.com
Just yesterday in the Seattle Times, Jonathan Martin published an editorial featuring mom Natalie Singer-Velush, (Editor of Parent Map magazine.) Natalie recalls a disappointing trip to the beach where she sat down-wind of some rowdy marijuana smokers. Natalie explains in the article: “I voted to approve legal pot…(and am half-kicking myself now), because what’s best for the state might not turn out to be best for my own family…We have a collective societal responsibility…to keep young people safe and healthy even when they aren’t our children,” and to act “with common courtesy in public.” I couldn’t agree more, but oy, is she missing the point.
I’m a mom of three, an MBA and a cannabis entrepreneur. I run a successful marketing company, as well as a Jewish non-profit called Le’Or – both involve marijuana or, as I call it, “cannabis.” My children know what cannabis is because I’ve told them. I explained to them that “it is a plant that lots of people take for medicine. It is only for grown-ups. If you use it before you are 16, it will damage your brain. Obey the law. If the law says 21, don’t use it until you are 21. Mommy cares about this issue because poor people go to jail for the plant and rich people don’t. That’s not fair.” It really hasn’t been that hard to explain because as we know, ending prohibition is more far more logical than continuing down the road with our failed policies.
What Martin and Singer-Venush fail to articulate is that the onus of “collective responsibility” doesn’t lie solely with the consumers of marijuana; it lays with us parents as well. As marijuana becomes legal, we as parents have to evolve our on dialogue about cannabis. Trust me, I used to squirm too, but we have to get over it. It’s time to evolve beyond pointing fingers and turn experiences with irresponsible use into teachable moments. Our children will be the first to grow up in an environment where cannabis is legal. If we don’t explain what responsible use is, who will?
For example, in this situation, if someone was smoking marijuana at the beach and it was bothering you. Instead of pointing fingers at those who you deem as irresponsible, feel free to say to your children, “See those people over there, they are breaking the law. You can’t smoke marijuana in a public place because it is not showing respect to your neighbors. Remember cannabis is something you have to use in a grown-up way. They are not using cannabis in a good way.” Then move, or don’t.
People are always going to make bad choices. Yes, smoking marijuana in a public place near children is inconsiderate and a violation of Washington state law. And yes, absolutely new laws come with new responsibilities. But they also come with new conversations.