Posted on 01/09/2014 2:54:47 PM PST by Kaslin
A Colorado family experienced a frightening surprise last week when their toddler, for no apparent reason, became groggy and unable to walk. A trip to the local emergency room found the cause: the child had eaten a cookie from the ground outside the family’s apartment. Only this was no ordinary cookie. It had been laced with THC, the mind-altering chemical in marijuana, and wreaked havoc on the two-year old’s system. Thankfully, she’s now recovered.
Ironically, the incident happened the day before Colorado’s new law legalizing marijuana for personal use went into effect. Apparently some drug users just couldn’t wait and broke out the pot-cookies a day early. While the child’s exposure to pot was apparently an accident, it’s a reminder that, in spite of the reassurances of marijuana enthusiasts, pot is a drug. And like all drugs, it’s harmful.
(It’s one thing for states to work towards more reasonable sentencing and deterrence efforts that prevent youthful offenders from having their lives ruined by an arrest for small-time possession, but it’s another to legalize marijuana and effectively encourage more people to use it.)
Marijuana use is too often treated like a joke. Movies, TV sitcoms, and comedians routinely treat drug use as a typical, expected, if kind of naughty behavior.
Now at least one business is doing the same, in an apparent ploy to win the business of pot-smoking young travelers. Spirit Airlines recently sent out an email with the subject line, “We’re high (at least 30,000 feet).” The email itself continued the theme, saying, “The ‘No Smoking’ Sign is off (in Colorado). Get Mile High with $10 off Flight-Only Bookings…If you want to make a beeline for Colorado right now, we don’t blame you…Book today and be sure to pack some munchies.”
This is funny?
Even when the entertainment world tries to take a serious approach to drug use, it arguably does more harm than good. For example, the popular show “Breaking Bad,” which followed the life of a chemistry teacher-turned meth dealer, arguably normalizes meth use, even while it shows its destructive effects. As one prosecutor wrote in Time, “And while Breaking Bad may not glorify meth in the sense of making it attractive to the average viewer, it does normalize the idea of meth for a broad segment of society that might otherwise have no knowledge of that dark and dangerous world.”
Drug use is no laughing matter. It prevents our children from fully flourishing and it injures them in serious ways. As David Brooks wrote in the New York Times last week (“Weed. Been There. Done That”), even marijuana use has undeniable negative consequences: “[I]t is addictive in about one in six teenagers…smoking and driving is a good way to get yourself killed…[and] young people who smoke go on to suffer I.Q. loss and perform worse on other cognitive tests.”
So why do our young people (and some adults) look to drugs, especially pot?
Often they are seeking a way to escape the boredom, hard work, and difficulties of their lives. Sometimes they hope to escape social isolation or loneliness. In many schools, teens tell me, the drug crowd welcomes outcasts and misfits more easily than other cliques. Anyone who does drugs with them is automatically ‘in’. Perhaps they are fleeing from something within themselves or simply avoiding hard work.
How to Save Your Family: Don’t Escape Life, Enjoy It!
In light of the accelerating push to legalize drugs—and to normalize their use—we need to teach our children three important about drugs:
First, don’t use them. Ever.
Second, if pot (or any other drug) seems tempting, dig deeper instead.
What is it that they are really looking for? New friends? Something to do? A way to relax? Our kids need to know there’s a healthy, fun way to find whatever they’re looking for—and they need to know that we will stand by them and help them. Drugs provide a temporary escape, nothing more. And that temporary escape often turns into a dead-end rat-hole, worse than the feelings driving the desire to escape.
Third, be proactive. Life is a gift, to be lived with purpose. Help your children discover their talents, their passion, and their purpose (a process that’s better accomplished with a clear head rather than a drug-induced stupor). Help them set interim goals and mark progress, while they keep their eyes on the ultimate prize. Teach them never to give up. Purposeful hard work is the best gateway to future happiness.
And no matter how many states legalize its use, marijuana will still be a gateway to nowhere.
Brave New World
The current opiate of the masses isn’t working well enough anymore, short of legalizing Opiates, they are pushing to legalize pot...
Is it wise for us better people to allow the commoners to decide whether to smoke pot? Was it wise for us to allow them to keep and bear arms?
What kind of world do we live in where we can no longer let our toddlers eat the stuff they find on the ground?
Not a world *I* want to live in.
APf
I thought pot took 3 to 4 months to grow. How did these stores have pot within a few hours of the law taking effect?
Pot is being legalized with none of the restrictions of other intoxicants, and in fact not even health warnings even though it is much more damaging to the lungs than tobacco, because pot use makes people dumb, passive and complaisant. It’s probably the best drug there is for an all-controlling government.
Also, drugs are permitted in Islam (getting stoned is a big pastime among ME males) but alcohol is not, so Obama is just getting things ready for his buddies in the choom gang.
“the child had eaten a cookie from the ground outside the family’s apartment”
Yeah. Right. Pot cookies coat the ground of Colorado like manna from heaven now. These parents just didn’t want to admit the kid got into their pot cookies and be charged with child abuse.
Found it on the ground . . . riiiiight.
A child was shot just the day before CCW went into effect. Come on. You may not like certain laws but these stretches are not worth acknowledging.
Hear, hear!
Truthfully, the best approach to children about marijuana is surprisingly simple, clear, and easy to understand for them. And it is very persuasive to convince them to rarely, if at all, use marijuana.
Tell them that there are indeed therapeutic benefits to some sick people, which is true, and yes, it is often used as a recreational drug. However, if you use it too much, or too often, you get nailed with its one big side effect.
It makes you stupid. Dull. Boring. It takes the edge off life and makes people drab. They no longer want to do fun things. They no longer have a sharp wit. Their creativity is muddled. They lose their initiative.
And, not ironically, if you ask them, they will admit to this.
One of the most effective anti-drug songs ever recorded was a cheery-sounding lament called “Because I got high”. In it, he complains of things, ordinary and important, he didn’t do because he was high on marijuana, and how it has ruined his life. (Some NSFW lyrics). This includes:
Not cleaning up his room.
Failing classes at school.
He lost a promising job.
He didn’t go to court so lost his entire paycheck to child support.
He ran from the police and was beaten and crippled.
He lost his car from not making payments.
He lost his girlfriend.
He lost his home and now sleeps on the sidewalk.
He says he is high now and is even screwing up his song.
Good thing the kid found a pot cookie rather than a whiskey bottle - the whiskey would have killed him while the pot never would.
Bravo Sierra
I have to disagree with this statement. I watched a big chunk of the BB marathon over the holidays. It was like watching a train wreck in super slo mo. With all of the murders, near death situations, betrayals, serious injuries, beatings, lies, and general mayhem, I can't imagine that the show normalized meth for anyone.
The black market has been providing it for decades. Unlike tomatoes or watermelons, it is a weed that will grow almost anywhere without help from a gardener.
Doctors figured out what was wrong pretty quick after the kid kept repeating “Dave’s not here man”.
If you lie to your kids they won't respect you.
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