How to talk to your kid about marijuana (part 1)

If you're the parent of a teenager or young adult in college and you're concerned that your kid might be smoking weed, or in fact, you know that they've been smoking weed, this is the video for you. I'm going to help you get your head around all of those little arguments that they're going to present to you. Yeah, that's right. They have a PowerPoint presentation that they've created. They probably even got a laser pointer to convince you and tell you why it's okay that they should be allowed to smoke weed. I'm going to give you their top five arguments, and I'm going to help you understand what the real truth is behind what they're going to try to tell you. Argument number one. Everybody does it. That's the first thing they're going to say. They're going to say, but Mom, but dad, everybody does it. Well, they're probably not really lying to you when they say that because they feel like that's the case. Because if they're doing it a lot, they're probably only hanging out with other people that do it. So in their little world, it does feel like everyone's doing it because all the people that they know are doing it. But in actuality, that's not true. Not everyone is smoking weed. In fact, the latest research that's come out about it says that about 45% of American teenagers by the time that they're seniors in high school have used marijuana to some degree. For some of them, that means experimentation, and others of them, it means they're doing it a whole lot. And 5.9% of 12th graders are using marijuana every day. So you're still looking at less than half. So when they tell you everyone is doing it, you don't really have to believe that. Argument number two is one of the oldest ones in the book. In fact, I wish they'd come up with something new because I'm sick of hearing it. It's the whole it natural argument. It's the whole God put it here, and if he didn't want us to use it, he wouldn't have put it here. Well, guess what? Every drug we have on this planet is natural, and God put it here. What is alcohol? Fermented grain and fruit. What is cocaine? It comes from a plant. What is heroin? It comes from a plant. So for the most part, everything we have here is pretty much natural. In my mind. That doesn't mean that God wanted you to smoke it. Maybe he wanted you to make some really cool rope out of it or something, but he wanted it for something, but maybe not smoking it. So forget that argument, I'm sick of that one. Come up with something new. It's safer than alcohol. Well, actually that's not really true. And there's research to back it up. In fact, some Canadian researchers just released a bunch of information and research that they did where they actually studied the brains of 13 to 17 year olds, 4,000 of those little brains, to see if alcohol had a more negative effect than marijuana on the teenage brain. And when they did the study, they, they actually thought they were going to show that alcohol caused more damage. But guess what they found Marijuana caused more damage to the brain, not just temporary damage. Because I know there was a bunch of studies recently that were released about the bad effects of marijuana. And then there are some other studies that says, yeah, but it goes away after three days. It's got more negative effects than alcohol and they're permanent. Because what this research says is that it actually causes more harm than alcohol and that harm can be long term. Number four, this is really, really common these days. It's the whole. Well, lots of states have it legalized and honestly, this is the easiest one for me to handle because guess what, lots of drugs are legal. It doesn't mean they're not a problem. Like it's legal to buy alcohol for most people. Still lots of alcoholics, it's legal to take pain pills if you have a prescription. Doesn't mean you're not abusing them. So the whole legality doesn't really, doesn't really have an effect on whether or not it's a problematic substance. And lastly, number five, I heard this from a young adult just last week. Here's what he said to me. In fact, I hear this kind of often. He says, yeah, well, I know lots of successful people that smoke weed. Okay, so what? I'm sure you do. I know lots of successful people that drink alcohol and lots of successful people that do other things. Heck, there's tons of rock stars out there. So super successful, have major big drug problems. So number one, you can be successful and still have a drug problem. And number two, maybe you should consider that really successful person, you know, how much are they doing marijuana? Do they do it twice a year with their friends at their high school reunion? Are they doing it every day? So that's a big issue. How much is the person doing it? Okay, now these arguments are just for your information only parents. I don't want you to use this information to argue with your kid back because even though it's the truth, it's not going to do you too much good to argue about it with your kid. But I can tell you how to have the conversation with them. But I have another video you can check out where I tell you exactly how to have the conversation with them, what to say and what not to say. Because I'm telling you, this is a big, giant trap and you need to be careful. This video was to help make sure that you knew the truth. Because sometimes you listen to those arguments and you think, well, that's a pretty good argument. And you might get your own head all mixed up about it. So you gotta make sure your head's on straight and then make sure and check out my video about how to have the conversation about it. Don't use these things. Check out that video. For tons more information on all things addiction and recovery and lots of free expert advice. Make sure and subscribe and hit the bell so you don't miss a thing.