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.
the whiskey would have killed him while the pot never would.
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Yeah...I’m sure a 2 year old could eat pot brownies and cookies all day and not die. Thanks for proving the damage that pot does to one’s brain.
What kind of parents let their toddler wander out and eat cookies off the ground?
I’m sorry, I can’t agree with all the worries about marijuana. If anyone here is ideologically consistent enough to say that alcohol should also be illegal, I can respect that. But ok..a kid got some pot cookie. When I was a kid I stole sips from the liquor cabinet. Most kids did. Or stole some beers for a party. Got drunk in high school, etc. All in all, deaths and injuries and lives ruined from alcohol far outweigh those from marijuana. The only difference is...we’re used to alcohol being around and readily available. I think adults should be able to use it if they want. Have some regulations on it, issue some warnings, etc., but keep out of private usage. We can certainly spend a few billion dollars less on locking up non violent pot growers and smokers, I think.
Pot is for slaves.
What I said isn’t a lie. Too much marijuana over too long a time makes you a dimwit.
Yeah, this is NOT a good thing but what can you do but note the increases in auto and home accidents that’s going to result from this new “freedom”?
“What kind of parents let their toddler wander out and eat cookies off the ground?”
What kind, indeed.
There has NEVER been a recorded death from pot overdose. Scientists have estimated that it would take 40,000 joints to kill a person, ie., it is impossible to overdose.
http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/news/20030918/marijuana-smoking-doesnt-kill
I haven’t found that to be any more true for pot smokers than of drinkers or teetotalers. I’m afraid your statement is false.
I saw a study that showed that 100% of people who smoke pot die...eventually.
How many pot studies have been done on 2 year olds?
...reply before you take another hit or it’ll be another 3 hours before you remember to hit the post button.
>>>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.<<<
As you’ve been getting hammered here for this opinion, let me tell you that you’re correct. Sadly, I know this from personal experience after spending several years in the endless party that was the 1970s. But I also know it from observation, and if anecdotes aren’t sufficient, then I also know it from controlled studies that indicate marijuana slowing response time, impairing intellectual ability, and diminishing initiative.
Having said that, preventing marijuana use is a train that has long ago left the station. Pot has been illegal my entire life - I’m 58 - and except for the years before 1974, it’s been easy enough to get some just by asking around and keeping your eyes open. And I’m not a smoker; those who get high would no doubt have an easier time finding some. It is de facto legal here in Alaska, as it was in Oregon, Connecticut, and California when I lived there. That might be the only silver lining in the wave of legalization that is bound to sweep over most of the country - everyone who wants to get high is already getting high, and everyone who doesn’t care can already get it if they want, so my guess is that there won’t be a sudden surge of new pot smokers.
Not that it’s any good for you, and the argument that it’s not as bad as alcohol is like comparing different kinds of illness. The real comparison is between getting stoned and being sober. Sober is better.
Like any other kind of social change, there will be unforeseen consequences. No one was talking about fetal alcohol syndrome and second-hand smoke when I was a kid, and ubiquitous pot smoking will no doubt produce something surprising, and not in a happy way.
Happy trails.
I wont waste any more time with a moron. Some folks don't need drugs to get stupid.
I am the only one who has replied to him and I would hardly characterize my responses as “hammering” him. Are you always prone to exaggeration? That’s not indicative of balanced mental functioning is it? My anecdotal experiences are the exact opposite of yours.
Since you bring that up here is an article about several studies of pot use on fetal develpment.
Use of Marijuana During Pregnancy(This article is excerpted from Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence by Lynn Zimmer, PhD, and John P. Morgan, MD )
Thanks to Libertarians, now big gov can force people to smoke pot via obama care and ebt cards paying for pot.
Libertarians always end up on the side of state apararus anarchy instead of balanced government.
I always said it was about the right to grow anything and trade anything, but they were hung up on snorting and consuming for free.
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