Nobody hates talking frankly to children more than their parents \u2014 and nobody but their parents have more incentive to tell a convenient lie. You may deny it, but let\u2019s be real: one of the \u201csecrets\u201d of effective parenting is the Platonic lie, the noble sacrifice of honesty for harmony. Maybe you don\u2019t really know the right answers, maybe you\u2019d prefer not to say, maybe it\u2019s already 9 p.m. on a weeknight, the kitchen is still messy, and your four-year-old wants an existential treatise before bed. So you take the easy way out and make something up. These are hollow victories, won with cheap shortcuts, that ring only in the near term.<\/p>\n
All the above applies when\u00a0talking to children about cannabis. In an age when tens of millions of American adults have access to recreational marijuana \u2014 and may even keep it in their home, a home they share with children \u2014\u00a0and\u00a0when there is\u00a0growing acceptance<\/a>\u00a0(and\u00a0factual data supporting it<\/a>) for providing medical cannabis to children suffering from specific ailments treated with cannabis, it behooves everyone to be honest, immediately.<\/p>\n If you are over 30, you should also be honest with\u00a0yourself, being the victim of years of anti-cannabis propaganda told to you by parents, teachers, and other authority figures you let you down. This simple maxim \u2014 tell the truth \u2014 is Elizabeth D\u2019Amico\u2019s strategy for talking to children about cannabis. But we\u2019d add one more bullet point, one for which D\u2019Amico provides an object lesson: Find out what the truth about cannabis is for yourself before you do.<\/p>\n D\u2019Amico is a clinical psychologist and a researcher at the RAND Corporation. She is also the lead author of \u201cPlanting the Seeds of Marijuana Use,\u201d\u00a0a recent study that examined the effect of medical marijuana advertising on impressionable youth<\/a>. She and other researchers and found that constant bombardment with billboards and print ads gives kids the idea that cannabis is mostly safe and good.<\/p>\n And this is mostly true! Cannabis\u00a0does\u00a0appear to be a safer choice than alcohol or tobacco, according to\u00a0a 2015 study<\/a>\u00a0published in Science Reports that included research from decades of related studies.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you say something is bad, that\u2019s not giving them the full facts,\u201d\u00a0D\u2019Amico told Westword<\/a>. D\u2019Amico is also the mother of two teens and lives in the Los Angeles area, which is both heavily populated and saturated with cannabis advertisements.<\/p>\n At all times, D\u2019Amico told the newspaper, the mission of a parent around marijuana is to encourage teens to \u201cmake a healthy choice by really talking to them about all sides so they can ask questions \u2014 and when they do, be honest about it. Because if you just tell somebody, \u2018Don\u2019t do it,\u2019 we know that doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n D\u2019Amico demonstrates a pervasive problem that encounters both adults and teens alike when discussing cannabis use: It\u2019s not as simple as being able to tell your children that adults can responsibly use cannabis, but children never can.<\/p>\n For example, D\u2019Amico told Westword: \u201cYes, there are medical benefits, but they\u2019re benefits for adults. No medical benefits have been shown for adolescents.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a surprising and troubling claim for a researcher to make, unchallenged,\u00a0and it is one contradicted by some scholarly evidence<\/a>,\u00a0as well as heaps of anecdotes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cannabis-derived medicines are helping many kids with seizures and with autism, just as they are helping adults \u2014 because that\u2019s the thing. Adults and kids are both humans, with human brains and bodies. To posit that a child of 17 lacks an endocannabinoid system that then mysteriously appears when they become of voting age isn\u2019t grounded in fact. It also contradicts what pharmaceutical companies know \u2014 but it may be what you, the parent, \u201cknow\u201d based on your own indoctrination and conditioning.<\/p>\n The point is this: You may not know the answer to what your teen asks about marijuana. Be honest and admit your ignorance when it arises \u2014 and then correct it. This will require some rigorous self-examination, but it will be worth it. If you repeat an old lie, the kids always seem to find out eventually.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, have you talked with your children about cannabis?<\/p>\n The post How To Talk to Teens About Cannabis<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Nobody hates talking frankly to children more than their parents \u2014 and nobody but their parents have more incentive to tell a convenient lie. You may deny it, but let\u2019s be real: one of the \u201csecrets\u201d of effective parenting is the Platonic lie, the noble sacrifice of honesty for harmony.Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,2767,99,263,356,1570,874,724,4483],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26659,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26658\/revisions\/26659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Remember to Educate Yourself First on Cannabis Science<\/h4>\n
Telling the Truth Requires Discussing Cannabis\u2019s Apparent Medical Benefits for Some Children<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: How To Talk to Teens About Cannabis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"