Would you mind if your teenager smoked weed?

[SecretSquirrels]

DS1 now 16 has recently mentioned several times that he has seen people he knows smoking weed. Not any of his friends but his year group and younger. He is very straight laced and judgy about it but reckons there has been zero drugs education at school and there should be (his opinion as well as mine).

I have seen two threads recently on which many, many posters openly admitted to smoking weed. I don't know whether these are very young parents with young children or whether they have teenagers but I am genuinely shocked.
Am I so out of touch or out of date that this is now normal?

Sure, weed can be used because someone is having problems in their life - that's never going to be the best way to use a drug, but if it's a soft drug like weed then it's not rational to treat it as if they're using heroin, that won't do you or that person any favours. Having a frank discussion about what problems they're experiencing instead of being in hysterics that they're smoking weed is probably the best way to go about it.

Also, a comprehensive list of studies about weed can be found here if you are interested: forum.grasscity.com/medical-marijuana-usage-applications/436257-granny-storm-crows-list-july-2009-a.html

It was common when I was young in this country; don't know if it is any more common now. Several of my friend did it. Not all those friends are still alive.

I would mind very much.

DD1(16) and I regularly talk about drugs amongst many other things. If she were to need it I would want her to seek help before smoking weed. We talked today about the new school she will be going to. StrictLovingMum's post struck a chord with me. as DD will be heading to a new much bigger 6th form with far wealthier students. I want her to be aware of the risks and temptations this can bring.

Comparing street drugs with prescribed drugs - surely one of the problems with street drugs is that you dont know what they have been mixed with? Something added to give a little buzz or whatever?

Neither DH or I have ever taken illegal drugs. At times in the past I have wondered what I missed. Now I am just glad to be able to say to DCs that we never have.

You're free to dismiss the research but much of it is from trustworthy sources.

If you're implying that weed was soley responsible for your son's current situation then you'd be avoiding many other possible factors that could have contributed to him now being drug dependent. Weed does not tell you to ruin your life in the same way a glass of wine doesn't, but if you're unstable or using drugs to cope then that'll rarely end well no matter what the drug.

Ultimately what I'm trying to say is if you find your son/daughter smoking weed then relax a little bit - they're not going to go shizophrenic, get cancer, overdose and all the other myths perpetuated by the media to sell papers and support political and corporate interests. If you feel they're smoking to cope with a problem then try to identify the problem and eliminate it before they become more depressed and careless.

I dont want my DCs to smoke anything. DF died of a smoking related cancer. If I catch any of my DCs smoking then they will be grounded until the end of time and all money removed.

They know this.

Yes! the DDs have been told since birth that drugs and smoking will not be tolerated. Drinking simply to get drunk is also not likely to be popular.

Also they have seen Grandpa's health suffer hugely as a result of smoking.

Something to heighten the mood a little:

Bumbaclot, some sources for my assertion that cannabis is addictive:

• A very clear, authoritative and pretty balanced webpage here from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
• More from Canada's leading MH charity here
• New York's health department info here

There are plenty more. In fact, you'll be hard pushed to find a scientific, medical or academic source published in the last 10 years that still argues that cannabis is not addictive. (I don't want to over-egg the pudding, however: alcohol is more addictive)

As for skunk... As you say, its active ingredient is the same as cannabis - i.e. THC - tho in much higher levels (about ten times higher, on average). But what is less well known is that skunk is engineered/modified to remove the cannabidiol (CBD) that occurs in other forms of cannabis (to 'make room' for more THC). CBD and THC act in 'balance' with each other: in brain regions where THC increases neural activity, CBD decreases it, and vice-versa. THC is known to have the ability to trigger psychosis, but in non-skunk varieties of cannabis, it is balanced or neutralised by CBD, which appears to have anti-psychotic properties. In skunk it isn't. Lab tests showed that people given intravenous THC on its own were more likely to show psychotic symptoms than those injected with a mix of THC and CBD. Real life studies also show that people admitted to psychi hospitals with drug induced psychosis are 7 times more likely to be skunk users that users of other types of cannabis.
(Sources: New scientist Jan 2010- read it for free here and a shorter version here )

My other sources of info are personal and anecdotal: I have watched people, including my own son, behave irrationally and dangerously and aggressively when they're on, or coming down from, skunk. The only conclusion, whatever you think of other forms of cannabis, is SKUNK IS BAD STUFF :(

Thank you for the sources, however the Royal College of Psychiatrists link contains a lot of outdated references and seems to be written in a way to scare parents into sending their child to a psychiatrist (psychiatrsits have to make money too). Your second and third link contain no references/sources to its claims.

In regards to your skunk example, THC is a psychedelic attribute of weed, and it can cause effects similar to mild psychosis - but they can be very broad, things like confused or fast thoughts, changed feelings, hallucinations. The researchers of the study asked the volunteers questions like "Do you feel you have to hide certain things about yourself to others?" Well, if you're taking an illegal drug then you are likely hiding this fact from people, they also asked: "Do you ever feel like people are out to get you, or that people would judge you if they knew what you were doing"? If you're doing something illegal then there are defintely people out to get you. These aren't delusions due to psychosis they are describing reality.

It's not true that skunk strains contain no CBD, however the anti-psychotic properties of CBD are interesting and could be used to help treat people with psychotic illnesses. This means weed strains could be breeded specifically for psychotic patients.

"Real life studies also show that people admitted to psychi hospitals with drug induced psychosis are 7 times more likely to be skunk users that users of other types of cannabis."

How was this proved? Because it's illegal, it's very difficult to tell if you're smoking skunk or a different strain of weed just by smoking it (there are potentially infinite strains due to breeding possibilities). Dealers will often hype their product up by saying they have skunk when in actuality it's something else, but they can do this because it's an unregulated market.

Schizophrenia/psychosis rates are not consistent with weed consumption:

"Increased cannabis use by the public has not been followed by a proportional rise in diagnoses of schizophrenia or psychosis, according to the findings of a forthcoming study to be published in the journal Schizophrenia Research.

Investigators at the Keele University Medical School in Britain compared trends in marijuana use and incidences of schizophrenia in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2005. Researchers reported that the "incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia and psychoses were either stable or declining" during this period, even though the use of cannabis among the general population was rising.

"[T]he expected rise in diagnoses of schizophrenia and psychoses did not occur over a 10 year period," authors concluded. "This study does not therefore support the specific causal link between cannabis use and incidence of psychotic disorders. ... This concurs with other reports indicating that increases in population cannabis use have not been followed by increases in psychotic incidence."

The results of a separate clinical trial published earlier this month reported that the recreational use of cannabis does not stimulate the production of dopamine in a manner that is consistent with the development of schizophrenia."

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19560900

The illegality of weed means that people who are willing to go to jail control the market, and this market is almost entirely driven by profit. People are out to make as much money as possible and can endanger people's lives in cases of gangs or the product where contaminants are used to increase weight to make more money. If weed was legal, it would be harder for your son or daughter to acquire it as there would be an age restriction - dealers don't ask for ID. If it was legal it could be regulated, information about THC/CBD levels would mean people could purchase a strain more suited to them. There would be no contaminents, it would be cheaper and also taxed which would provide a huge amount of tax money being that it's currently the most used illegal drug. Less people would use alcohol as they switch to a safer drug so no wonder alcohol companies want to keep it illegal.

Do you feel it should be illegal?

So, Bumbaclot basically you are saying/claiming that lot of evidence is pointing towards safety of cannabis, and that us parents should not be concerned if our DS's come home "off their faces on cannabis, with olive size eye pupils", that is what you are saying isn't it?
You are also failing to acknowledge cannabis as a get away drug, young seventeen something is very unlikely to stay on cannabis for very long, more likely he/she will crave bigger buzz and that's where all the dealers/wheelers come in, who were only too happy to hook DC's on cannabis to begin with but with much larger picture/harder more expensive drugs in the near future.
(costumer base and all that)
I don't understand your argument pro cannabisBumbaclot

I also do not care much for your gathered evidence, I don't care for the argument safe/unsafe, I have seen it first hand and what I saw wasn't good.
Researchers, Professors, this study and that study will not help bring my bright and healthy child from the lows of drug abuse, they won't be there to pick up the pieces, they are not in the front lines of this, we are, so you see Bumbacloth I am not prepared to surrender my firstborn and let him be corrupted by drugs made glamorous and deemed safe by you and likes of you.

My boys are still small but it really terrifies me to think what they will be exposed to, specially after reading several threads on here which have opened my eyes to how widespread drugs are in the uk.
My worry is that teenagers don't always listen to their parentS. My dream would be to find a video or book that I could show them when they are a bit older with real stories of people that deeply regret taking drugs and how their life has bee affected. I think that would make more of an impact.

Where have I said cannabis is 100% safe? Nothing is 100% percent safe, you can die drinking too much water. I'm presenting the polar opposite side of the argument, as it appears the majority of opinon here is that it simply ruins lives, which just isn't based in reality. Millions of people use it without issue, am I lying? I don't believe it can ruin lives on its own, if you're saying that a mentally and emotionally healthy individual started smoking weed and ended up ruining their life due to the affects of the weed then I'd be extremely suspect - there'd have to be something else in that equation (life is complicated).

"You are also failing to acknowledge cannabis as a get away drug"

The gateway theory has been debunked, look it up for yourself if you don't believe me. It's based on the same logic that if you begin drinking milk you'll end up drinking alcohol which isn't true. If someone is in search of a bigger buzz then that is the user's choice, it's not the drug telling the user to do this. You are right in saying that a dealer can also offer harder drugs, but this is because of prohibition driving people to these dealers in the first place.

Am I providing any insight to anyone here? It seems the general consensus is that I'm full of shit - it would be useful if you could argue why that's the case but you're free to think that. I have no interest in spreading bullshit, I don't see what that would achieve.

Have not read whole thread but here's my experience. My DB and I went to the same school which was drug ridden. My group steered clear, my DB's group got involved. Fast forward 25 years. My DB now is bi-polar,and has dope induced psychosis. Hugh support means he manages to function. His 14 son has been refered for depression due to his witnessing his father's illness. My DB's best friend from school has just come out for re-hab, his other best friend is an alcoholic. None of my group have these problems. Government ad campaign was spot on: drugs ruin lives.

You are far more likely to ruin your life by smoking pot than by drinking water -- yet another comparison that minimises the danger of pot to the point of ridiculousness.

You simply don't know what millions of people might have achieved with their lives if it wasn't for their sad habit. You don't know how much their relationships have suffered or their careers and intellect have been impaired.

I think a parent's influence is still potentially the strongest when it comes to children.

To answer the OP, yes I would mind! Just make sure that you underline at every opportunity your stance on drug taking of any kind, just in case. He might end up in situations (at parties for example) where it becomes hard to resist. Would he be strong enough to say no and leave no matter how many others were encouraging him/ taking drugs around him?

And I absolutely think you cannot compare cannabis from 25 years ago to cannabis now. There are so many really strong varieties now that can really screw up people's psyches. People with a predisposition are known to sometimes be catapulted into schizophrenia by skunk for example. MIL has many friends whose children have never really recovered mentally from youthful drug taking. Some are in units or sheltered housing, others still living at home when not in hospital. It's truly terrifying. Quite a good way of wrecking an entire life actually.

Really useful thread. Have just discovered that my foster son is smoking cigarettes and weed. He's away at the moment and we have the job of talking to him about it on his return. Thanks for all the information on here.

Duchesse totally agree with you. The hippy-dippy stuff my DB smoked was bad enough, but when he moved on to skunk the "real" mental health problems started. Point is, as you no doubt know, you are not buying this stuff from boots, and therefore you really have no idea what it is you're purchasing.