Pubdate: Thu, 04 Sep 2014
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2014 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/mVLAxQfA
Website: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Authors: Maria L. La Ganga and Jenny Deam, Los Angeles Times
Page: 14A

LEGALIZATION CHANGES LEAVE PARENTS WONDERING WHAT TO TELL KIDS ABOUT POT

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - Laurie Ritchie prides herself on being an 
open-minded parent. She voted in favor of legalizing marijuana two 
years ago. She started talking to her daughters about drug use around 
the same time. She hasn't stopped.

Now that recreational pot is legal in Colorado and Washington state 
for people 21 and older, "it's everywhere," the 53-year-old said. 
Even on her patio in this Denver suburb, where her husband sneaks an 
occasional smoke.

But Ritchie is aghast at the thought that her sixth-grader and her 
high school freshman might stumble upon their father puffing away on 
a joint-or worse, that he would openly smoke pot in front of them.

"I don't know why I feel like this," she said, flustered. "It's 
probably because (legalization) is so new. There's still some kind of 
a lingering stigma."

Legal recreational pot hit store shelves on Jan. 1 in Colorado and 
July 8 in Washington state, followed by deep family confusion. In the 
first year of what some describe as a grand social experiment, 
talking about pot and using it have never been more complicated for parents.

As soon as places like Seattle's Cannabis City and Dank Colorado in 
Denver began peddling bud, bongs and a good buzz, "Just say no" 
stopped working.

Children's Hospital Colorado and Seattle Children's Hospital have 
seen an uptick this year in the number of children arriving at their 
emergency departments after accidentally ingesting marijuana. The 
Washington Poison Center received more calls about kids and pot in 
the first nine months of 2014 than it did in all of the prior year.

The University of Washington's Social Development Research Group and 
Seattle Children's together handed out more than 60,000 copies of "A 
Parent's Guide to Preventing Underage Marijuana Use" in less than six 
months - and that doesn't count Internet downloads.

Dr. Leslie Walker, chief of the division of adolescent medicine at 
Seattle Children's, can't keep up with requests for presentations on 
how to talk to kids about pot and its impact on the developing teen brain.

"There's a huge need, and parents are beginning to wonder, 'What do I 
tell my kids?' " Walker said. "We're in this funny spot. We can 
either be a beacon of how to do this well or an example of what not 
to do. I'm not sure what side we're going to be on."

Nothing better captures the new world of legalized marijuana than the 
snapshot taken on opening day at Cannabis City, the first of 21 
retail stores planned for Seattle. The third person to buy bud there 
was none other than Pete Holmes, Seattle city attorney.

Voters in Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia face ballot 
measures in November about whether to legalize party pot. Advocates 
predict legalization could sweep the nation in the same way same-sex 
marriage did.

"It's so chic right now," said Kelly Kerby, a drug and alcohol 
intervention specialist at Eckstein Middle School in northeast 
Seattle. "If you're not pro-marijuana in Seattle right now, you're 
the enemy. There's something wrong with you."

The reasons are spelled out in the state's biennial Healthy Youth 
Survey. Between 2006 and 2012, the percentage of Eckstein 
eighth-graders who said they had used pot in the previous month had 
more than doubled, from 4 percent to 10 percent. At nearby Roosevelt 
High School, pot use rose during the same period from 18 percent to 
27 percent for the 10th-graders surveyed.

During that time, the city of Seattle began licensing medical 
marijuana dispensaries, and the campaign to legalize recreational 
marijuana ramped up.

Now, Kerby said, the controlled substance Eckstein Middle School 
students are most often found with is marijuana.

"Legalization made an already bad problem worse," she said. "We're 
taking something and we're making it legal, and that means it's OK."

Cherylynne Crowther's daughter is entering Eckstein Middle School 
this semester. Crowther said she began talking to her 11-year-old 
about smoking, drinking and sex when Athena was in first grade.

Pot conversations began two years later, when medical marijuana 
dispensaries began popping up and the family drove by the green cross 
establishments.

"It's a challenge to explain what marijuana does and why anyone wants 
to do it," Crowther said. "Why would someone alter their minds?"
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom