Marijuana isn’t addictive. I remember my older brother explaining to me very carefully that marijuana definitely wasn’t addictive, using himself as an example; “Look at me, Bren, I smoke pot every day, sometimes even a couple of times a day, and I’m not addicted!” Kids get their ideas about marijuana from all kinds of sources, including potheads. Young people sometimes mistakenly believe that if someone uses a drug, they must be well informed and really know what they are talking about. Marijuana may not have the devastating withdrawal symptoms that more deviant drugs like heroin have, but it is plenty addictive and causes the same behavior/results as any other drug addiction. Marijuana addicts have dysfunction in their relationships and build their lives around using the drug, thus neglecting more positive activities. Similar to alcoholics, they often fail to reach their true potential in school, career and life.

Marijuana isn’t a real drug. This is also one of the more pernicious myths about marijuana. THC, the psychoactive agent in marijuana is a powerful hallucinogen and has especially potent effects on an adolescent brain, which is still very plastic and changeable. Research shows that young users of Marijuana are more likely to develop mood disorders and even psychosis than their non-using peers. It is clear that teens who use marijuana have less fear of other drugs – this lowered perception of harm puts them at increased risk of using other dangerous substances.

Pot is a plant, and something organic can’t be harmful. Some kids think that marijuana is herbal and kind of a vitamin or something…If you look at the world of nature, there are lots of elements you would not want to have contact with…snake venom, poisonous mushrooms and deadly hemlock are all natural, too. Many drugs originate from plants; they just go through a little more processing before arriving in a user’s hands. Marijuana may be a natural intoxicant, but the end result is impairment, which interferes with one’s ability to perform even the most basic of tasks. There are also many detrimental health effects, which have been extensively researched and widely published.

Marijuana is medicine and has healing properties. One of my more amusing classroom interactions about Marijuana: Two boys (who struck me as pot smokers) were insisting that pot cures glaucoma, so I asked them if they had glaucoma – they looked at each other and then back at me and said “no, but we are doing prevention for glaucoma!” Kids notice headlines about the link between marijuana and illnesses like cancer, AIDS and painful muscular disorders. Teens don’t necessarily read the whole newspaper article and sometimes jump to the conclusion that pot cures cancer or returns ill people to good health. Marijuana has some quirky medical properties, but doesn’t cure anything. It is quite effective as a nausea suppressant, so chemotherapy patients have found relief from those uncomfortable side effects. It can also increase hunger, thus addressing the wasting syndrome associated with the later stage of AIDS. Medicine has many superior pain relievers at its disposal, so marijuana may not be the best choice for pain – one recent study even showed that marijuana can increase the sensation of pain in some patients! Morphine, a member of the opiate family, enables people with painful illnesses to be comfortable. This does not suggest that heroin should be legal or available. The legitimate use of marijuana as medicine shouldn’t be used to discount the harmful effects of recreational use.

Marijuana isn’t as bad as alcohol, so should also be legal. It is true that alcohol causes many societal ills, but at the same time, many adults have a perfectly healthy relationship with alcohol with no harmful effects. It is important to look at intentions and results when we gauge someone’s alcohol use. If a drinker is looking to get bombed every time he or she drinks or often ends up drunk, we consider this problem drinking. People smoke pot to get stoned, there is no other reason to use the drug. Marijuana is not part of the food and beverage world, or something that goes well with cheese…I don’t believe there is a non-harmful way to use Marijuana (unless for medical purposes) – there is always intoxication and negative health effects. Legalization of marijuana would create more users and make the Goliath of addiction in America that much bigger…And, do we really want a bunch of stoned people walking around?

Girls are great fun to teach, but I also worry about them. This is why I visit many girls schools and I have observed some hazards that do seem particular to girls. The obvious and most pressing fear is that a young woman who is incapacitated by alcohol will be sexually assaulted. I am certainly not discounting the horror and harm there, but people are well versed in those statistics and I want to address some of the more subtle dangers I see for girls in the alcohol arena. Our society often worries about the more visible male side of drinking and addresses issues like assaults, violence, vandalism and fights. The more invisible consequences for girls are often overlooked. As females get into middle school, they tune in to the message that their appearance is paramount and the pressure to perform for adults starts in earnest. My concern for girls is that they are so busy being perfect, that alcohol use becomes a form of self-medication. In the independent school world, the expectation from adults is that girls will get excellent grades, be fine athletes, be accomplished in the arts, do community service and on top of all that, be nice. The expectation from their peers and the greater pop culture is that they will have perfect hair and skin, wear fabulous clothes, as well as be skinny, cool, pretty and popular. Whoa. It’s not a surprise that some girls are letting the steam off in unhealthy ways.  Calorie conscious girls refrain from eating if they know they are going out drinking, which puts them at increased risk for getting dangerously intoxicated quickly (and all the risks inherent in that), as well as developing disordered eating around alcohol. I have not heard of a boy “dieting” all day so he can drink more beer at night. Girls are also not skilled at just leaving a situation if it gets too hairy or uncomfortable. They stick around in case they are needed to play nurse to a drunken friend or feel worried that people won’t understand why they left the party. Males often say that would just go home if they didn’t like what was happening; girls almost never say that. Some students of both genders feel confident that they could call their parents or another trusted adult to assist them in an emergency, which shows a strong bond between parent and child and good instincts on the student’s part. It’s extra important that parents go over these possibilities with their daughters and sons and offer to come help – no guarantee of amnesty is necessary, as kids in healthy families understand that consequences would be reasonable and the family would survive the event. More importantly, disaster is easily avoided if kids can trust that adults know what to do and it is safe to call for help. This is not a mixed message, as parents aren’t expecting kids to drink, they are rather making room for the idea that their child could make a mistake and might need them.

If you pay attention to all the rubbish on TV and the Internet, it seems that teens are just out of control in every way. Please remember that in the midst of all this madness, many, many young people are thriving and making healthy choices. In fact, the majority of kids that I meet are doing just fine, but nobody is talking about them. In my work, I try to really keep it simple; we are hoping for postponement of alcohol use until adulthood. Bearing in mind that alcoholism is a pediatric illness that almost always arises in childhood, delaying onset of alcohol use is the primary goal. Teens see the logic in that message and it doesn’t demonize all alcohol use, which would confuse them about adult drinking. Many factors go into whether or not teens use alcohol and other drugs. Kids who are getting a loving non-use message at home, delivered with warmth and humor are making the best decisions – this is true for boys and girls. Parents who focus on health and safety have the most success.  I once heard a mother say something beautiful at a parent meeting, “I have already told my daughter that she is my Hope Diamond and I cannot replace her – I wouldn’t toss my diamond into the middle of a keg party with 80 drunk kids running around and expect to ever see it again or have it come home in one piece – my daughter understands that it’s her environment that I don’t trust and not her.”