With marijuana becoming decriminalized in more states , it seems that more and more people aren’t just comfortable with using the plant for recreational purposes, but also in challenging cultural norms regarding the drug: like getting high around your children.
Today did a profile on “Marijuana Moms” like Kaycee Bawdon, who’s a mom of four and doesn’t see any problem with lighting up with some other moms while their kids hang out and play.
“Mommy needs a joint just as much as mommy needs a glass of wine. You can still be a good parent and use marijuana at the same time.”
She’s not alone. In fact, middle-aged parents are such a high growing demographic of pot users that the CDC has said they’re more likely to smoke than their own teenage children.
The Guardian even compiled a list of “weed confessions” from parents who toke and when they usually do so. Many say they do so once the kids were put in bed, or go outside or to another room.
A common argument for smoking around one’s kids, or regularly at the end of the day, is that it’s just like cracking open a few beers or having a glass of wine at the end of a long day. Hell, the world’s favorite hot Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, went on the record to say that smoking weed is no worse than smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol.
In the same Guardian article, parents admitted that the idea of telling their kids that they smoked marijuana didn’t sit well with them. For some, it was because it was illegal to smoke marijuana for recreational use in their state and they didn’t want to promote illegal behavior. For others, they said they would be more comfortable once their kids were older and wouldn’t even mind smoking with them once they came of age.
Despite the fact that tons of stories are being covered in the media about successful, high-functioning parents coming out as daily stoners, doctors say that the parents who don’t smoke around their children are right not to.
Pediatrician Karen Wilson published a study that found children could absorb cannabis metabolites when parents smoked around them. She spoke about the potentially harmful effects of parents burning up when with their kids.
“There is a strong association between those who said there was someone in the home who used marijuana or a caretaker who used marijuana and the child having detectable marijuana levels.”
In the same NPR piece, Wilson says that although they haven’t proven that secondhand marijuana smoking is harmful, she’s confident that when she goes forward with their research that their hypothesis will prove that the presence of marijuana metabolites in children’s blood will definitely not be a good thing. There’s no research to suggest that secondhand vaping will have a harmful effect, however.
What do you think? Is it OK to be high around your kids?