How to talk to your kids about cannabis, these industry fathers say

As more states enforce cannabis legalization (18 states are recreational, 36 have medical programs) it becomes easier for adults, namely parents, to open up about their use. There’s even a brand now called Dad Grass.

A quick Google search for Father’s Day reveals an increasing number of recommendation lists that include cannabis products for fathers, but not how to bridge that conversation with their kids. Studies show that more and more parents are using cannabis and working in the medical and / or recreational industries, and the discussion about cannabis at home is changing.

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Do not deny it

Roger Bloss, interim CEO of MJ Holdings, began using medical marijuana in 2009 after a car accident left him in chronic pain. When he decided to tell his children about it, they were around 10 and 13 years old. In his words, he just came out and said it, emphasizing that it was medicine that helped him not only to work, but to remain a present, loving father.

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“Children are smart. So if you try to hide it, they’ll see, ”says Bloss. “You saw that it didn’t turn me into a monster. I never called it marijuana; I was very careful and made sure that it was medicine. “

Take into account the cultural and community context

Richard Huang grew up in Taiwan for 10 years before he and his family emigrated to the United States, where societal perceptions of cannabis are much more negative. The stigma he was taught at home made it harder to form his own opinion until he tried it for himself, and he believes that stigma is wandering through the communities making it worse.

“We were taught as children abroad that any drug is a drug,” he says. “Culturally, it’s okay to be drunk, but it’s not okay to be high. It starts with not knowing. Everyone, regardless of their ethnicity, faces the same stigma. ”

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His daughter, now 8 years old, grew up at a time when there is more information than ever before, and Huang looks forward to showing her all the best of what cannabis can do as both medicine and a pastime, before becoming more social Pressure determines their opinion.

Use resources

Brian Sekandi, a cannabis recruiting entrepreneur based in Toronto, Canada, realized that despite the size of the industry that is nationally legal in Canada, there were so few resources to discuss what cannabis use and work would be like in 2021 Families are becoming part of the legal market and new discussions have to be held. That’s why Sekandi wrote Kids of Cannabis, a children’s book about the kids of cannabis professionals, to get the ball rolling.

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“If parents don’t educate their child about cannabis, someone else will,” he says. “We want parents to support this conversation. It doesn’t have to start with ‘no smoking’, but [rather] the basics of what cannabis is as a plant within a legal framework. “