Drug Prevention Starts Early and It Starts At Home

This article doesn't really seem that bad at first glance. It gives parents some helpful advice about their truly legitimate fear that their children will use marijuana which will then lead to heroin. And nobody wants that for the children, right?

After all, it is true that Canada has the highest rate of marijuana use in the industrialized world. 16.8% of the population used marijuana in the last year!* That's a lot of pot-smoking hippies. As I was reading this article I was thinking that we are all so reefer madness indoctrinated that this seems fairly innocuous. I spend a lot of time thinking about drug policy and I often do not see the reefer madness that is right in front of me. Take this statement from that article:

Those with parents who need alcohol and other drugs to take the edge off or to have fun are likely to grow up with a similar appreciation for substances.

All the parents are nodding their heads in agreement. Kids do what their parents do! So if we stay drug-free, our kids will be drug-free too.

But let's take that very same sentence and replace it with other commonly enjoyed substances:

Those with parents who need coffee and other drugs to take the edge off or to have fun are likely to grow up with a similar appreciation for substances.

Those with parents who need sugar and other drugs to take the edge off or to have fun are likely to grow up with a similar appreciation for substances.

Sounds kind of stupid now, doesn't it? What is so bad about having fun anyway? I love coffee and nobody would bother to condemn me for my 4 cup a day habit. But if I dare to admit to my nightly pot-smoking ritual hoo-doggies the condemnation would be swift. This kind of thinking drives me nuts. It makes me wish I had some weed.

*It should be 100%.