My Son, Drugs and Safety Share:
December 8, 2014 - By Melissa Franqui
I do not want my son to do drugs.
He’ll be a teenager soon, and it’s time to have that talk with him, one of many difficult discussions to come. Abstinence-only conversations don’t work. It’s not real, it’s not honest, and will only drive any experimentation with drugs away from my help, advice and care. It’s up to me to teach him what he needs to know about alcohol and other drugs, why not to do them (at least until he’s much older), and how the consequences of an arrest can hurt him more than using a drug.
But how do I talk to him about drugs, protect him from drug abuse and the harms of drug prohibition? Where do I start?
Last week, a new edition of Safety First was released by the Drug Policy Alliance, a publication that offers parents common-sense strategies in discussing and dealing with adolescent drug use with new helpful sections on drug use and brain development and marijuana legalization.
I was raised by my mom, a very traditional Puerto Rican woman who immigrated to the New York City area in the 70’s, and drugs was a very taboo subject when I was growing up. In fact, we spent more time talking about people we knew who were in prison because of drugs or struggling with addiction than the drugs themselves.
Even at our Thanksgiving gathering a few weeks ago, she looked around and whispered the word “drogas”, when asking if a family member had an addiction, as if it was so shameful, it could not be spoken. As a result of this long-held belief, I took many risks when I was young and curious about alcohol and other drugs, risks that I want my son to avoid.
Teenagers will make their own choices, just as we did. In helping my son navigate peer pressure and make better decisions, safety is my highest priority and it should also be his. I want to have an open and honest dialogue with my son about these issues and will talk to him about alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs and distinguish between use and abuse.
...read more: https://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/my-son-drugs-and-safety
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Carl Sagan - "Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people." --- Robert Pirsig - "When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." --- Brian Cox - "[One] problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense."
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