child exposed to weed

[GreeneQueen]

How can I help a child who is being exposed to weed on a regular basis.
I do my daily walk in the park and on several occasions I saw a boy about 5 yo with a male carer (?father) and a dog (dangerous breed type). The father always smokes a joint which I can smell from the distance. It leaves me outraged every time and my instinct is to want to protect the child but im not sure how to go about that. do i report to SS with the little info i can provide to identify them? or am i being altogether silly to think this can be helped?

Of course, you're right, families have Art 8 rights that social care can't interfere with unless (like I said) there is evidence of impaired parenting capacity and impact on the child.

Whether you feel 'sad' that the state can't, and wouldn't have the resources, to intervene in families on the basis of a bit of weed use alone is subjective. I guess I used that word to appeal to the OP.

Hm, a friend's ex smokes a lot and has become paranoid to the point of telling the primary aged kids that their mother is trying to arrange for him to be murdered. Not the only one Ive known who developed severe mental issues form over indulging either.

Heavy booze or heavy weed isnt a good idea.

It wasn't in a room it was outside. I smell cigarette smoke that I don't like outside what can you do?

I was about to say this, just because of their legal/illegal statuses people seem to condemn the wrong thing. I’ve seen and heard very little bad/abusive behaviour attributed to the influence of weed alone but alcohol has caused so much. I do judge those parents who think regular drunkenness is acceptable around their kids and who can’t seem to see the dangers

Thank you for all the replies. I was writing from the position of someone who sees cannabis as an illegal drug which is harmful to a young child (or any other person). I am surprised to see such a wide cross-section on views on this including those who feel that it is entirely benign. I also agree that alcohol can be just as bad although it is legal.
I think I might give a call to one of the childrens charities like NSPCC and ask for advice. I suspect I will get nowhere like many of you warned.
I just wanted to say to those who think this is benign behaviour - cannabis is highly addictive, causes lung disease much worse than smoking, it can affect memory/cognition and trigger psychosis as mentioned above. Especially in a small child whose brain is fast developing regular exposure can have lifelong consequences and its almost inevitable that he will use cannabis as an adult.

So are a lot of things that the police don’t enforce.

I was recently speaking with a young adult who was smoking in front of a policeman as we talked, the officers personal opinion was it should be legalised and he didn’t cause the young lad any trouble for it. Nice of him since the chap was having a rough time already.

I also have a young relative, maybe twenty years old, who gets it on prescription for his medical condition. It’s very much a gray area right now.

What other things do the police not enforce?

Well hopefully your relative doesn't smoke it in public, prescription or not!

Minor instances of antisocial behaviour, theft, fights etc. as well as old archaic laws that are still in place. There are some really strange ones!

He does but as respectfully as possible, he will go out on his breaks at work for example and hide near the bins or on a more quiet street. If he sees a child he will move away or quickly stub it out.

Cannabis isn't addictive.

People smoke it in town centres now they smoked it on the train last year the carriage STANK the driver came in as the doors opened and they legged it

Essentially its decriminalised in the Midlands where im from

Yes it can be

No,this is being in your own home and having it waft past from other peoples windows or in corridors coming in under your door. It's unacceptable.

I don’t think smoking outdoors with a child in the vicinity is a problem as long as they aren’t breathing it in. I am talking about smoking anything around children being harmful due to second hand smoke- I am certainly not making any judgement about people that smoke weed.

I know everyone from lawyers and magistrates to primary school teachers that smoke it, I used to smoke with my lecturer at university, just not where children could be getting second hand high or lung damage.

Manchester too, I used to be the bus and people would light up at the back and smoke out of the windows. I was always too much of a coward for that but nobody was particularly bothered.

It's not physically addictive

Came here to say this. It can improve your parenting when used in the right way imo

So does that make it more harmful in the UK then, and less harmful in countries where it's legal

Exposing children to second hand smoke is definitely legally permissable harm under UK law.

It's not illegal to vape or ingest cannabis with a medical prescription.

😬 fascist?

We have normalised use of cannabis
We have a mental health crisis
No connection, nothing to see here. It makes you a better parent anyway.
If you don't think cannabis use is a significant public health issue then you've been smoking too much of it.

So what about alcohol then? Personally I think that does more damage

He probably does that as well. How can you tell he's not if you're not inside watching him?

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3606907/

Hopefully this should world it's a paper detailing why cannabis withdrawal and addiction is real it doesn't happen the exact same way but it can still be addictive