If you live where recreational weed is legal, is smoking pot in front of your kids any different than drinking a few beers in front of them?
That’s the question one Redditor asked recently, and he was met with a chorus of jumbled answers — everything from “yes, it’s O.K.” to “no, you should still hide it” to “It’s this kind of shit that makes me want to repeal (legal pot).”
New York Times: “The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana”
For reals. The original question: “My 7 year old is coming to live with me soon (from Illinois) and I’m not sure how to handle the topic of adult recreational marijuana use. What do you do in your home? Are you open about it, its use and its effects? Do your kids understand the effects? Do you handle alcohol differently than marijuana? Any opinions and experiences are welcome!!”
Cannabist pot-and-parenting columnist Brittany Driver tackled this question in some of her early columns. In one piece, she admitted that her young son knows she smokes marijuana. In a later piece, she hoped that her son will wait until he’s 21 years old to experiment with drugs or alcohol.
Does Driver partake in front of her child? “I don’t, never in the same room as my son,” she wrote.
He doesn’t understand what marijuana is, but he does understand that there are lots of things that are just for Mama and Dada. As he gets older we will talk with him candidly about drugs and alcohol and keep an open-door policy. I think being truthful with him about our use, not trying to scare him and keeping a direct line of communication available is going to be key.
Whether he chooses to experiment with drugs or alcohol in the future will be up to him; Making him comfortable enough in our relationship that he feels I’m available to talk to and nonjudgmental of his choices is up to me.
One Redditor got angry with the question of smoking pot around kids.
“I am so far for legal weed but if you have to question getting blazed around your 7 year old and cant wait until they go to bed to take a poke you really need to question if you are ready to be a parent. It’s this kind of shit that makes me want to repeal (Colorado’s pot-legalizing Amendment) 64.”
So what do you think: If you live where recreational weed is legal, is smoking a joint in front of your kids any different than drinking a few beers in front of them?
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