I'm a Parent Who Smokes Pot - Page 2

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Like prescription drugs Valium and Xanax, marijuana has a mellowing effect, and many of the moms I interviewed told me that they smoke to manage their moods. Anna, a 37-year-old mother of two in Santa Monica, CA, says sneaking a puff while her younger son is napping "calms my anxiety. Sometimes I feel like I can't complete one thought, let alone the 25 requests my kids have just made. Pot has the same effect on me as 20 minutes of yoga, but I don't have time for 20 minutes of yoga." Marijuana can be medicinal, and some parents are using it like a quick-fix antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication — so does that make it okay? No, says Charles Sophy, a psychiatrist and addiction specialist in Los Angeles. "I have mixed feelings, because I think marijuana probably does have beneficial uses for ADHD and depression, but it hasn't been properly studied," he says. "If it was regulated and labeled by the appropriate agencies, it could be a tool. But I don't prescribe it, because it's not safe or regulated."


Pot also comes with side effects and risks. Marijuana is notably less toxic and addictive than alcohol or cigarettes, but you can still get hooked. The probability of anyone who smokes becoming dependent on marijuana is 9 percent, according to the Institutes of Medicine. For a daily marijuana user, that number jumps anywhere from 25 to 50 percent, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "Physical dependence can happen with any psychoactive substance you take regularly," Sophy says. "You become psychologically dependent when you say to yourself, 'I get through my day better with pot; I need it.' If pot affects your sleep, work, appetite, emotions, or ability to socialize, that's cause for concern."



Sure, pot might help a mom relax, but the habit may seem less harmless if her kids pick it up down the line. The parents I talked to hide their stashes, because they don't want their children to become pot smokers, even if they do it themselves. With good reason: Marijuana, like any drug, is dangerous to children's developing brains. "There is something called pruning that happens in the brain of an adolescent," says drug expert and New York City psychiatrist Julie Holland, M.D. "In earlier years, kids' brains are making connections and growing bushy with information. In the late teen years, the brain starts remodeling itself." Drugs can interfere with this fragile, ever-changing architecture and leave young brains more vulnerable to mental health problems like psychosis.




In light of those consequences, perhaps Squirrelster McSquirrelstein no longer seems as adorable. "I find that the older my children get, the more my opinion on pot being okay changes," says occasional pot-smoker Jamie, whose kids are 12, 10, and 8. "I think it's a sketchy thing to do around kids, especially preteens. We went away with some friends last week to a lake, and the dad smokes daily. He kept going out to 'chop wood,' and he'd come in reeking of marijuana. It bothered me: What if the kids smell it and ask about it?" It's hard to teach your kids honesty if you're skulking around, engaging in criminal activity in the garage. Cassandra, 36, a mom of three from Portland, OR, who smokes pot about once a month, has simply resolved to lie to her kids about her drug use. "I think it's a parent's job to tell kids to stay away from drugs. If my kids ask me if I smoked pot, I'll lie," she says. "I lie about Santa Claus; I think I can lie about drugs."


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