The Hypocrite Parent
So you smoked pot.
So maybe you ‘experimented’ with pot when you were a kid. And now your kid’s trying it and you feel like you can’t say anything. Get over it. Smoking pot can affect the brain and lead to other risky behaviors. So you have to set the rules and expect your kid to live drug free, no matter how hypocritical it makes you feel. Because to help them with their problem, first you have to get over yours.
Reliable evidence shows that marijuana today is more than twice as powerful on average as it was 20 years ago. The fact is, pot today has twice the concentration of THC, the chemical that affects the brain.
So even if you did pot when you were younger, there’s nothing hypocritical about trying to keep your kid off it.
Many studies have shown what can happen to kids who regularly smoke marijuana:
- Decreased ability to learn
- Impaired judgment about driving or sex
- Symptoms of depression, even thoughts of suicide
- breathing problems
- greater exposure to cancerous chemicals than from tobacco
- increased likelihood of using even more dangerous drugs.
But the good news is that kids whose parents get involved with them are far less likely to do drugs. So lay down a few laws for your kids. And the sooner the better, because the average age when teens first try marijuana is under 14 years old.
Pot can turn your hopes and dreams for your kids into a nightmare of lost opportunities.
It can start with messing up in school. Kids who regularly smoke marijuana can develop symptoms of what psychologists call an “amotivational syndrome,” which in plain English means:
- decreased energy and ambition
- shortened attention span
- lack of judgment high distractibility
- impaired ability to communicate and relate to others
|
Additional Links
|