How can we educate young people to understand that even experimenting with pot can be a slippery slope?

Mike asks: How can we educate young people to understand that even experimenting with pot can be a slippery slope, particularly when the family doctor has said it’s harmless if they only smoke pot occasionally?

Hi Mike,

This makes me crazy. When I was first diagnosed with Crohn’s all those years ago, my doctors didn’t know what to do for me, and addiction wasn’t on the radar—so today I cut them a little slack. They didn’t know what they were unleashing upon me. But they know now. Doctors know that pot is not harmless. Pot is addictive. Pot was one of my drugs of choice; it gets into your fat cells. There were times during my recovery when I was losing a little bit of weight, and I would feel like I was high because the THC in the fat cells was starting to come into my bloodstream. It was crazy-making. This is an addictive substance. This is a toxic substance, especially today, with what it’s cut with. If you’re as old as I am, the pot that I smoked wasn’t nearly as dangerous as it is today.

Today, it’s being cut with all kinds of horrible things like fentanyl. Fentanyl is probably the worst because fentanyl gets into the respiratory system, and anybody who’s smoking that joint can take one toke and die. This is a big reason why there are so many overdoses. When a doctor says this is harmless, it would be really good for your self-respect to challenge the doctor. Doctors are not gods. Please speak up and say to them, “Wait a minute, we’ve heard differently about this. We hear that it’s cut with substances that are terrible, that can kill a person in their first toke. How can you say that this is harmless?” You can do that in front of your addict. You can also sit somebody down and say, “I’m so concerned about you. I love you so much. I don’t want to lose you. I want you to understand that pot is dangerous. It can kill you.”

Do what you can to educate your child, your partner, your friend. This is a very serious thing now. Fentanyl in any way, touching it, smoking it, it can all be horrific. We need to love our addicts enough to be very careful.

All my best,
Candace