Pot-Proofing Your Child

There’s a new concept being circulated on the internet: Pot-proofing your child. This means that a parent makes sure that his (or her) children are thoroughly protected from the temptation to use marijuana.

kid saying turning down marijuanaThere’s now more than twenty states plus the District of Columbia that have authorized the sale of medical marijuana. And as most people know, two more states that have made it legal to buy and possess the drug for recreational use. There are close to 2.5 million Americans holding medical marijuana cards. The illicit market adds millions more people carrying around pot – nearly 19 million were current users per the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

And the final statistics that help paint the picture of what your children are up against: Nearly 90% of high school students said that their classmates are drinking, using drugs or smoking during the school day. Ninety-one percent of students know someone at the school who sells marijuana.

All this means that if your child is interested, there’s going to be pot available. He’s probably going to see it used and will also probably be offered some. He’s going to need to know with certainty why this is not the path he wants to go down. And the reason has to be more personal for him than being told he will get into trouble.

What you can do about marijuana abuse guideIt seems like every week, there is more information available on the harms done by pot. We’ve collected some of the most essential facts you need to relay to your children in our publication called What You Can Do about Marijuana Abuse. You can download this guide here: http://www.narconon.org/drug-abuse/marijuana/what-you-can-do.html

There are some people who say “Don’t even try to keep your child from using pot (or other drugs). You won’t succeed. Just try to get them to use drugs responsibly.” We disagree 100%. We have seen plenty of young people make the choice to stay drug-free until they are grown and plenty of people who continue to make that decision thereafter. “Harm reduction” is what it’s called when you don’t try to keep someone from using drugs but just try to prevent the worst of the harm – it’s not the only path.

Help Steer Kids in the Right Direction

But to succeed, you need to know more about marijuana than your children will hear from their friends. If you smoked pot twenty or more years ago, you need to know how things have changed since then. You need to have a number of conversations with them before they start using this or other drugs – which often starts as early as 12 years of age. You must give them specific information on the mental, spiritual and physical damage done by marijuana. We’ve packed as much of this information in our guide as possible.

I saw a couple of feedback surveys we received after one of our drug education lectures that was very relevant to what we are talking about here. One of the students said: “Other people would tell me that drugs were bad but they never went into detail like [the Narconon instructor] did. Now I won’t do MDMA at my next rave. Thank you.” Another one said: “I never knew how dangerous drugs could be.” A third student said: “I have gotten offered drugs before. And now that I know about them and what is in them, I am definitely backing off.”

These surveys tell me that if children are educated on the real harm done by drugs, many more will make the choice to skip them. It would be totally fine with me if this current generation of children would grow up completely drug free. Just think, in a few decades, every drug rehab facility in the country would be empty. Our next generation can grow up strong and sober. If you’re a parent, I hope our guide What You Can Do about Marijuana abuse helps you succeed on this part of your job.

http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/nationwide-trends

About Sue Birkenshaw

Sue Birkenshaw has worked with Narconon in the drug prevention and rehabilitation field for nearly three decades and has extensive experience in drug education programs with both school based programs as well as broad public outreach.