 | | | | Moms are going to pot |  |
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I’m feeling like I’m a little behind the times, well, maybe the high times.
I was all ready to blog about boozing suburban moms after reading author Stefanie Wilder-Taylor’s confession in her Mommy Track’d column “Make Mine a Double: Tales of Twins & Tequila” that she had a drinking problem, when I discover that moms have moved on to pot — just like we warn our kids!
“Middle-aged, middle-class soccer moms are smoking pot ... a lot. These women aren't stoners: they're teachers, lawyers, and, perhaps, even your neighbor who prefers puffing a joint to sipping chardonnay,” writes Gina Kaysen Fernandes in “Marijuana Mamas!” on Momlogic.
OMG! Will crack and heroin be next?
I’m kidding, but booze and pot smoking aren't kidding matters, of course.
Momlogic notes that in a nationwide Chikii.com survey of hundreds of women between the ages of 25 and 60, some 52 percent said they light up at least 10 times a year and 27 percent smoked between one and seven times a week. And of the hundreds leaving comments on the article — many of whom confess to smoking a few doobies themselves — most are pro legalization.
Am I surprised? Not really; in the baby boomer-heavy Northern California town in which I live, I’d say a good portion of the suburban moms and dads are smoking pot regularly. I know numerous people who do, some who have a medical marijuana prescription and some who, well, don’t. And I know a few parents who light up with their teens (as well as parents who allow their teens to drink at parties at their house, but don’t get me started …)
I have nothing against pot (and in my youth, I really, really had nothing against it!); I just choose not to partake and I don’t want my teens to do it either while they’re still living with me. There’s a family history of addiction, and that’s always part of my discussions with them. They get it.
Still, I’m much more worried about booze, which is legal, very accessible and a much more prevalent problem. In fact, my county has the dubious distinction of having higher teen binge drinking rates than the state and national average. It's already a problem for some of my sons' friends.
I rarely go to a social event where there isn’t booze — and people who’ve had more than their share. The cops like to hang around the bars in my town, but they really ought to park themselves outside all the galas and wine and foodie events around here — they’d make their monthly DUI quotas and then some.
And among my friends who have gotten divorced in recent years, as I have, the drinking is much more frequent. Women are drinking more, almost catching up to men’s alcoholism rates.
And, many of them are taking antidepressants as well.
I don't want to begrudge anyone her doobie or Cosmo. Yet, I'm concerned about the use of pot or booze as a crutch. As a 24-year-old L.A. mom and restaurant manager who smokes pot daily tells Momlogic: “Marijuana is the magic in my life that helps me unwind, stay sane, and have more energy. I have a stressful job, it's something that helps me wind down so I don't take out my frustration on my husband or my child."
Gee, I can’t help thinking that there are lots of much healthier ways to chill from a stressful day than lighting up or kicking a few back — exercise, yoga, meditation, listening to music come to mind. But, I’m no angel. I’ve been known to have a glass of wine or two to unwind, too.
But if I discovered that one of my teens was smoking pot, I’d want to ask him why — peer pressure? experimentation? or did he need pot to “unwind, stay sane … have more energy” and keep him from go ballistic on me, his brother or his friends? Because if he was smoking pot for the latter, I’d say, Houston, we have a problem.
Just ask Wilder-Taylor.
What do you think of pot-smoking moms … and dads?
Is booze more of a problem?
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pill popping mommas I think antidepressants are the problem. Men put us through a lot of sh*t, and so do our kids. If we complain we are bad mothers, and bitch wives or crazy girlfriends. We are emotional butterflies, but if you cry too much, because your life seems f**ked up because your man is cheating on you, and your children are driving you crazy then somehow you need a magic pill. Most of the stay at home moms I know are on some prescribe medicine, and really want to drop everything and leave. However, the pills are the only thing keeping them there. Without them there would be higher divorce rates, and some abandoned kids running around. |
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Cannabis Death rates for alcohol have reached 100,000+ annually, with antidepressants and other such pharmaceuticals only 10k behind. Scale down the death rate list and you'll find illicit drugs at 17,000. And at the bottom of the list, cannabis is responsible for 0 deaths. I don't mean to be rude, but of course booze is more of a problem. Drinking can kill brain cells whereas smoking pot simply paralyzes them for a short time. In fact, the only cell's death being prompted in smoking pot is that of cancer cells (http://tinyurl.com/d2lpdn). Hell, the University of San Diego even found that cannabis 'protects the brain from damages caused by excessive-drinking' (http://tinyurl.com/y8ov6qx).
Marijuana is a name William Randolph Hearst introduced to the English-language in part to demonize cannabis and the Hispanics who were reportedly bringing the psychoactive plant to the north country and touting the use of hemp, which we now know can be used for over 25,000 different products including paper. Hearst, being the owner of both a logging and newspaper empire, saw out a campaign that effectively put hemp's industrial use to sleep (uh, except during WWII and that whole 'Hemp for Victory' thing). In recent times, terms like 'pot', 'dope' and 'weed' have been coined to go hand-in-hand with negative titles like 'Marijuana' and have been, in turn, used by 'users' in hopes of mitigating their connotation to little effect.
The truth is that we have been lied to. If only the rest of the nation would do their research on the topic, we wouldn't have such a convoluted idea of what the plant is called, what it really is, and more importantly, what it actually does (both physically and metaphysically). |
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