Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not understand why drinking alcohol while your kids are asleep is ok but smoking weed is not?

308 replies

QuackPorridgeBacon · 10/08/2017 13:08

I know this may sound like a twattish thread and I understand I may get a lot of shit for it.

The thing is though, I don't understand how wine and gin (two favourites on here) are seemingly ok to consume while kids are in bed sleeping, yet having a smoke is terrible.

Now, putting legalities aside (I don't think they matter seeing how some places are now legalising it can't be that bad) what is the issue with smoking but there seems to be no issue with drinking?

I see friends on fb and the like talking about having a few bottles almost every night some with really small babies (I'm terribly anxious so the younger the child the more I worry, even though I probably shouldn't lol) yet if you have a smoke you are deemed irresponisble and a druggie right up there with crack fs.

One person I know, would drink almost every night and would complain that her partner (now ex) would smoke weed. Yet I see them both as the same really, maybe I see the drinking as worse though because once you are drunk that's it there is no way to really stop that in an emergency. Smoking, you tend to snap out of it need be and are always alert and just snacking will make you feel how you did before anyway.

Basically, wondering what others views are?

OP posts:
ghostyslovesheets · 10/08/2017 19:07

funds ! but I guess you do have to find them to buy it!

TheNightmanCometh · 10/08/2017 19:11

The only difference is that alcohol is socially acceptable in great Britain.

I'm not sure cannabis isn't, tbh. Certainly in every circle I've moved in, it's bee NBD. For all that it's still illegal, that's not a law that really gets enforced. You can pretty much smoke it if you want to.

I know there are always people who slag it off on these sort of threads, but I think that's more about people with those views being attracted to them than anything else. Amongst the general population, not sure that many fucks are really given.

Incidentally, did anyone see the Professor Green documentary about legalisation recently? Was interesting.

CremeFresh · 10/08/2017 19:14

It's the horrible , dirty underworld of drug dealing that seems to be overlooked by some users. I am biased because of what I've witnessed myself and I've also seen the affects of alcohol abuse . I hate the damage I've seen done to families and can't get my head round people saying cannabis is ok.

TheNightmanCometh · 10/08/2017 19:17

The damage that cannabis farms do, the forced labour of modern slaves that the industry seems to have now encouraged, I think that's the biggest reason why we have to legalise.

Original poster
QuackPorridgeBacon · 10/08/2017 19:19

There wouldn't be a dirty underworld of drug dealing if it wasn't illegal though. That's why I said most issues would be solved by making it legal.

For cannabis it's not the same kind of drug dealing as cocaine and the like. Most dealers grow it or buy it from a mate they know and you only know dealers because you know them or friends of theirs who sort you out. No one can walk up to a dealer and buy the stuff like you can with other drugs where dealers have there 'corners'.

OP posts:
Beelzebop · 10/08/2017 19:19

I agree OP, YANBU.

JustAnotherPoster00 · 10/08/2017 19:19

It's the horrible , dirty underworld of drug dealing that seems to be overlooked by some users. I am biased because of what I've witnessed myself

Thats down to a drug policy that isnt based on evidence, if the law was changed to an evidence based approach, and all drugs were legal and taxed it would take away funding from all sorts of illegal activities, it would also bring in somwhere in the region of £7 Billion in tax revenue

TheNightmanCometh · 10/08/2017 19:21

No one can walk up to a dealer and buy the stuff like you can with other drugs where dealers have there 'corners'.

How can you possibly generalise like that and hope to be accurate?

JoshLymanJr · 10/08/2017 19:29

That's why DH and i stuck to popping Es when ds was tiny. It made getting up in the night eady cos we already were.

Funny how it's the little things you miss about the baby years...

Urubu · 10/08/2017 20:11

YANBU
DH and I smoke, never when the DC are awake, always in a specific room where the DC are not allowed. Window open day and night to air it.
We both have demanding jobs and earn 100k+ each, so our brains must not have been that affected.

To PP saying there is no label so you can't measure it the same way you can alcohol, I would compare it to drinking a cocktail: you don't know exactly how much is in it (even though you have a rough idea) but after a couple of sips you realize if it is too strong. Plus we buy enough to last us months, so after the first evening we know what to expect, like drinking the same cocktail from the same bar every time.

We never ever drive afterwards, once I had to take a DC to the ER after having a smoke in the evening, I just took a cab.

I believe it is still illegal here purely for political and cultural reasons, not health.

Cubtrouble · 10/08/2017 20:19

Good God the World's gone mad.

GunnyHighway · 10/08/2017 20:26

Because it's grown by criminals and terrorists. Smoked by cunts. Any questions?

VulvalHeadMistress · 10/08/2017 20:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

UtterlyFcked · 10/08/2017 20:39

Everyone is entitled to do what they want in the privacy in their own home.

If you smoke weed IN the house when there is a child living there, you're a bit of a dick.

Mollyboom · 10/08/2017 20:51

If alcohol were discovered now it would be classified as a 'Class A" drug based on its psychoactive properties, its addictive nature and potential to cause harm. This country and many others have a completely juvenile and contradictory attitude to drugs which is not evidence based. Opiates and cocaine were sold as over the counter pharmaceutical remedies less than 100 years ago. OP I agree with you, I am bemused at the almost bragging rights that go with alcohol consumption by people in charge of young children. The legality issue is clear but in terms of the effect on the person consuming them and their ability to function there is no difference. However, as a pp pointed out it is possible to control the amount and strength of alcohol consumed, which is difficult with cannabis. Again, this reverts back to their differing legal status and that is an argument for a different thread. I would highly recommend anyone interested in a factual and logical debate on drugs read the book 'Chasing the Scream'

chestylarue52 · 10/08/2017 20:58

Because it's grown by criminals and terrorists. Smoked by cunts. Any questions?

That's just not true.

KatieC0811 · 10/08/2017 21:04

I'm really confused where all this 'cannabis farms slavery killing the planet' rubbish is coming from?
Too much Pablo Escobar research?
Yes there are grows on ridiculous scales that are run by cartels etc, but in the developed world, someone you knew from school has turned his loft/garage/spare room into a manageable grow and passes it on to a circle he knows well, probably to help support his family... 'Not all men' and all that...
And just to add another point over alcohol, cannabis taken during pregnancy (in small amounts/secondhandly) barely even scratches the surface of the damage a similar amount of FRUITY ETHANOL!!!! will cause. Perhaps at most weed will make your kids hyperactive....
I'd take cannabis addiction over alcohol anyday, and would choose the same for my kids.

TheNightmanCometh · 10/08/2017 21:17

I don't know about the planet, but are you really saying you don't know that we have a problem in the UK with slave labour and cannabis farms? Like, honestly? It's not new information. I work in a sector where I come across this more than most, but I first became aware of it in 2009. It's not got any better since. The UK's anti slavery commissioner has acknowledged the problem.

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/26/uk-police-criticised-failure-help-enslaved-vietnamese-cannabis-farmers

The fact that some people grow their own on a small scale, presumably ethically, doesn't cancel out the undoubted fact that we have people in the UK trafficked here to work in cannabis growing. Do you know much about Vietnamese people traffickers? They're not nice.

gillybeanz · 10/08/2017 21:19

The friend I get mine from has a plant that he supplies to his own friends, he lives in the country. Confused
This is where anybody I've ever met who smokes weed gets it from.
It's the resin that I wouldn't be trusting these days.
We had a small plant when we lived in the country, I certainly had no slaves working away there Grin
What stupid comments.

TheNightmanCometh · 10/08/2017 21:22

It also seems counter intuitive for anyone who's pro legalisation to deny the appalling criminality and suffering that the cannabis industry in the UK currently involves. There are people who don't have any reason to want it legal, but who'll be persuaded by the possibility of stopping Vietnamese teenagers being trafficked here to grow it. Those of us who are pro legalisation shouldn't be denying this or pretending it's somehow outweighed by the hippy down the road growing their own. That just makes us look stupid. We should shout it from the rooftops.

TheNightmanCometh · 10/08/2017 21:32

The NSPCC also have some things to say about child trafficking

www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/child-trafficking/

www.nspcc.org.uk/what-we-do/childrens-stories-about-abuse/lams-story/

And the Sally Army. They have some government contracts to work with trafficking victims, which personally I don't agree with, but no point pretending they're not well aware of who's getting trafficked here for what:

volteface.me/features/child-trafficking-cannabis/

Fwiw, I don't know where the cannabis I used to smoke came from. It could have been grown by forced labourers. I hope not, and I stopped before the Vietnamese traffickers really took off, but I can't entirely rule it out. This being naice MN, I'm sure everyone on here only smokes free range and gives their dealer paid annual leave and pension contributions. But it's not a good look to pretend this isn't happening.

gillybeanz · 10/08/2017 21:36

It won't be legalised, even though the medicinal purposes for certain illnesses are well known.
Tobacco and Alcohol are legal because the gov make huge amounts of money from the tax.
They can't control weed or drugs in general, it has no value to them, it won't be legalised but their spin will continue to feed you the bull shit you read in the papers.
I'm not saying these farms don't exist, but it's obviously neither widespread nor something that the Police are expected to Police.

TheNightmanCometh · 10/08/2017 21:42

I'm not saying these farms don't exist, but it's obviously neither widespread nor something that the Police are expected to Police.

I'm sorry, but for you to complain about stupidity and then come out with that is just too much.

What's your basis for saying it's obviously not widespread? It's not like you come to this subject with any actual insider knowledge of law enforcement or trafficking, I know you've not had involvement in either of those, so you can't be offering your own personal experience in these fields as evidence. So what is it?

gillybeanz · 10/08/2017 22:04

Why on earth would I have to have insider knowledge of law enforcement Confused or trafficking Confused to state the people I know either grow their own or get it from a mate who grows their own.
I know loads of people with plants.
We even had a neighbour once, elderly chap who kept pigeons.
he had a plant growing in his garden, hadn't a clue what it was and commented to his wife, it would be lovely when it flowered Grin

Yes, of course there are farms, but as I said, most smokers like to know what they are getting.
But you obviously know where all these farms are and exactly what Police are doing, even though reports say it's jack shit.

Themostannoyingperson · 10/08/2017 22:13

urbru yeah but if you and your other half are earning 100k each you can minimise the problems associated with drugs.

I'm not sure there is a great deal of difference between weed and drink except the massive one of legality. And also everyone drinks something but smoking anything has no benefits to you. Why encourage the idea that smoking ( fads weed whatever) is acceptable.