Cannabis & Canada: Think about the children!

Originally published October 19, 2018

Well, cannabis is legal now throughout Canada and you may be getting some questions from your kids. Libraries in the US are at the forefront of community education and many libraries in states that have legalized marijuana offer education courses as well as adult book recommendations on a variety of cannabis-related topics.

But, how do kids fit into this new world of marijuana legalization?

Most research suggests you should not wait for your kids to start asking questions, but parents should begin talking openly and honestly about the use of cannabis. This is easier said than done since much of the information out there has a very negative, outdated, and biased mindset. That being said, we have found some resources for you to base your cannabis discussions on:

• The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction provides a guide called Talking Pot With Youth: A Cannabis Communication Guide for Youth Allies. Relaxed, unbiased, and full of facts, this is a great go-to to remind yourself how to have non-judgmental and empathic conversations with your kids.

• The organization Canadian Students for Sensible Drug policy created a toolkit called Sensible Cannabis Education: A Toolkit for Educating Youth. While meant for educators, this resource is also great for parents.

• While fear-based and abstinence-based education overwhelmingly do not work nor resonate with youth, Drug Free Kids Canada.org has a downloadable Cannabis Talk Kit. Though aimed at talking with teens, it has some really great, fact-based information you can use with younger children (e.g. the Words to avoid when talking about cannabis is a great section).

• The PBS News Hour presented a segment called What a scientist suggests you tell your kids about legal marijuana. Known for its unbiased reporting, this is a great resource to watch.

• EmpoweringParents.com creates a Q & A style article called How to Talk to Your Child About Marijuana: 4 Responses for Parents. It does use some biased language, but it’s not a bad starting point.

• The Children’s Hospital of Colorado has several documents, including one entitled How to Talk to Your Kids About Marijuana. This includes some guidelines for having conversations with age-appropriate conversations with children of different ages.

• The Children’s Hospital of Colorado also provides a kid-friendly article about The Facts About Marijuana with straight facts as well as visuals on edibles.

• Though quite a biased site, Huffington Post provides a very concise article with a number of talking points called How To Talk To Your Kids About Weed: A Cheat Sheet For Parents. It’s clearly written and brings up a number of very relevant points your kids will probably ask at some point.

• Health Canada provides a resource called Cannabis in Canada: Get the Facts with information for people of all ages about cannabis. There are a number of well-written, though ever-so-slightly dry, resources for parents and teachers. These include Marijuana: What parents need to know, POSITION STATEMENT: Cannabis and Canada’s children and youth (podcast).

Tough Topics

It’s no doubt that cannabis legalization adds a few more hurdles to already harried parenting conversations and teaching. While it’s completely up to parents to decide what and how to talk to your children about your kids about cannabis, children hear everything, even things you don’t want them to hear, and having meaningful conversations with them will help them understand these big, sometimes uncomfortable, oftentimes “hot button,” issues.