Reply to Not sure I care right now that my kid is smoking weed

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Almost every single addict starts with booze. Your reefer madness thinking is outdated. I do NOT want my kids smoking until adulthood/college. Just like I don't want them pouring themselves a big as glass of sauvignon blanc on Friday after school for happy hour.

But something like 20% of Americans used adult use or medical weed in legal states last year. You can be addicted to gambling and shopping too- addicts are going to addict. Trust me, you know parents who smoke weed. Boring ass, regular parents.

Pot is way better than 20 years ago. Its more refined and has product controls, which is awesome. You smoke significantly less than a bag full of seeds or stems and the legal market has seen product quality go up and price in real dollars go down. Low dose edibles are great for all kinds of things that people reach for bottles of prescription pills for. We did a huge disservice to ourselves by making this schedule 1 (which was not based on data or science, it was entirely political) which took away decades of research on what we can and can't tread with THC and CBD compounds or how they react with other medicines.

Yes you should 100% care that your kid is hurting a developing brain. Like I said, its akin to alcohol for me. That's not OK for children.

Don't conflate the two issues though. [/quote]

Arguments about the quality of pot aside (that's not really the point if you are trying to have kids avoid it altogether), pot is still a gateway drug. Alcohol may be as well, but pot definitely is. Scientific surveys support this, as does anecdotal evidence.  In my brother's case, "all the kids" smoked pot in high school.  The thing is, all the other kids were able to stop there.  My brother was predisposed to be an addict, and kept ratcheting it up until he was addicted to crack.  He barely graduated from high school and didn't go to college, since those were his addict years.  He lost most of his friends that he had been friends with since kindergarten. This is a nice, charming suburban kid from a "good family" and siblings who became professionals, etc.  You may not know until you try it if you are the kid with the addictive personality.  Addicts may addict, as you say, but I don't think my brother's would have manifested as a drug addiction absent starting with pot.  Lots of people agree about pot being a gateway.  So in addition to the obvious concerns about the affects on developing brains, I am concerned about my teens using it at all and becoming addicted.  They know their uncle's story and hopefully will avoid it.  [/quote]

PP you are quoting. But all those studies point to a use of alcohol first or a concurrent use at onset. Bc it's the easiest to get. Look I get it, I have a step brother that is clean from heroin for 2 years now. Good kid from good family. He very occasionally smoked pot and then "moved" to pills and then heroin. It's awful. He is in his 30s and basically wasted 9 years of his life. He is just finishing his degree now. I just have a different view of addiction than you do. I've said repeatedly that I don't want my kids high or drunk even moderately, those are adult behaviors IMO and not something for minors, so we definitely aren't that far apart. I just know we can't (and I firmly believe shouldn't) unring this bell with legalization, so now we need to parent around it. This part of parenting sucks for sure[/quote]

I remember years ago seeing or hearing some lecture where the speaker said the gateway drug is beer--that's where kids generally start. It is true that to become addicted requires exposure, although as far as I know the vast majority of people who use pot as teenagers grow up with the trajectory their SES would tend to predict, just like most people who drink alcohol do not develop an alcohol abuse issue. Also, the older they are when they start the less likely to have long term problems. But also, these are not normal times. so the pandemic could be a triggering event for all kinds of problems I would think.[/quote]

The gateway substance is whatever you are first able to get your hand on.[/quote]

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