"It's Just A Plant" book...

[~Laura~]

I ran across this book at a store. I didn't get a chance to read the whole thing before we left. What I did read was quite interesting. You can read the first few pages online.
My question is, would you read this book to your child?

[Joyful Tie Dyes]

When it was age appropriate I would. We have a copy.

[vickieboggs]

no, absolutely not!! I think it's horrible!!!!

wonder when they will bring out the cocaine, acid, mushroom, lsd, crack, etc etc books????

[peaches330]

Originally Posted by vickieboggs no, absolutely not!! I think it's horrible!!!! wonder when they will bring out the cocaine, acid, mushroom, lsd, crack, etc etc books????

It is ridiculous to compare marijuana to any of those drugs. Marijuana is nowhere near ANY of those. I was a meth addict by the time I was 16 (of course I'm not anymore, I quit everything cold turkey when I found out I was pregnant with my DD) and I have done all of these drugs before and those are some SERIOUS things to be comparing to weed. I mean there really is no comparison whatsoever and I guess only someone who believes in marijuana as a medicine or who has done other drugs would understand that. I don't even consider marijuana a drug. My husband smokes it as medicine because he has chronic pain from a number of conditions and it really helps him and your comment makes him sound like a druggie which he is NOT. I understand that it's your opinion and you think it's right, but I guess your comment just rubbed me the wrong way because of my situation. It just seemed a little rude.

[Anna1345]

Originally Posted by peaches330 It is ridiculous to compare marijuana to any of those drugs. Marijuana is nowhere near ANY of those. I was a meth addict by the time I was 16 (of course I'm not anymore, I quit everything cold turkey when I found out I was pregnant with my DD) and I have done all of these drugs before and those are some SERIOUS things to be comparing to weed. I mean there really is no comparison whatsoever and I guess only someone who believes in marijuana as a medicine or who has done other drugs would understand that. I don't even consider marijuana a drug. My husband smokes it as medicine because he has chronic pain from a number of conditions and it really helps him and your comment makes him sound like a druggie which he is NOT. I understand that it's your opinion and you think it's right, but I guess your comment just rubbed me the wrong way because of my situation. It just seemed a little rude.

Although I totally see your point, but the reality is that in MANY cases, pot and teens leads to much more serious drugs and behaviors. It is a slippery slope.

[ouchienurse]

Originally Posted by peaches330 It is ridiculous to compare marijuana to any of those drugs. Marijuana is nowhere near ANY of those. I was a meth addict by the time I was 16 (of course I'm not anymore, I quit everything cold turkey when I found out I was pregnant with my DD) and I have done all of these drugs before and those are some SERIOUS things to be comparing to weed. I mean there really is no comparison whatsoever and I guess only someone who believes in marijuana as a medicine or who has done other drugs would understand that. I don't even consider marijuana a drug. My husband smokes it as medicine because he has chronic pain from a number of conditions and it really helps him and your comment makes him sound like a druggie which he is NOT. I understand that it's your opinion and you think it's right, but I guess your comment just rubbed me the wrong way because of my situation. It just seemed a little rude.

Originally Posted by JayTee Are you for real?? A parent that would teach a young child that pot is okay is seriously no one I care to know.

It doesn't advocate use, it just talks about what it is

Originally Posted by ShayneLeMaster I agree. Many in our (my side) family smoke, i dont do it, but dont think bad on those who do either.recreation/medicine use, I have more ill feelings towards people who let drinking get out of hand opposed to smoking some pot everyonce in a while..

Originally Posted by Anna1345 Although I totally see your point, but the reality is that in MANY cases, pot and teens leads to much more serious drugs and behaviors. It is a slippery slope.

Alcohol and teens leads to way worse things than pot and teens, from personal experience.

[hippydippymama]

Originally Posted by Anna1345 Although I totally see your point, but the reality is that in MANY cases, pot and teens leads to much more serious drugs and behaviors. It is a slippery slope.

If you look at it this way, though, it's not necessarily that pot leads to worse things. It's that pot is usually the first drug people try because it is easy to get, not too expensive, and relatively benign in comparison to other drugs. Yes, I have done other drugs, and yes, pot was the first drug I tried. But that was because I had such easy access to it. Drugs like coke, heroin, etc. are much harder to come by, so you're not as likely to find a teen or young adult experimenting with those first.

Plus, if you're open to trying pot, you're probably open to trying other things, but not necessarily. I know plenty of people who smoke pot but would never dream of touching any hard drugs. And I also know some people who do hard drugs and have never smoked pot, because they don't like it!

I hope this makes sense. I think the perception of pot leading to harder drugs is a bit skewed. Pot is usually the first step just because it's the easiest to get, not because it automatically makes you want to go out and shoot up smack. In that vein you could even say that cigarettes lead to hard drugs because those are even easier to get than pot, and 99% of drug users I know have smoked cigarettes since they were teens.

[peaches330]

Originally Posted by Anna1345 Although I totally see your point, but the reality is that in MANY cases, pot and teens leads to much more serious drugs and behaviors. It is a slippery slope.

I think that in a lot of instances it does kinda introduce them into the party & drugs scene but I feel that the whole "gateway drug" thing is a total cop out. I know tons of ppl who are heavy into drugs (obviously since I used to be into them myself) and I personally (and I know a lot of other ppl feel this way as well) don't feel like I was really led to anything or that this huge door was opened up with marijuana. Honestly I think a lot of what kind of opened the door for me was alcohol and that's where all of my problems started, but alcohol is legal and a lot of ppl who are anti-marijuana drink a couple beers on occasion which is just crazy to me. Like a pp said, there are cops who will complain about the fact that alcohol is legal and weed is not because alcohol makes ppl crazy and weed just makes ppl calm and feel better. But I would never blame my drug use on anything other than myself. I blame it solely on myself and the fact that I WANTED to do it.I would go do drugs for 4 days straight with no sleep, crash, wake up feeling like crap, and say "Yea, let's do it again!" because I made the choice to start using more serious drugs. I guess I just feel like when ppl say that, it's a total cop out. It's so easy to use that as a scapegoat instead of taking the blame upon yourself and trying to redeem yourself. And when ppl use that as a cop out it gives this horrible reputation to everybody who uses it. Ok, I better stop and go to bed now, because this will turn into a novel if I keep going.

[amrijane128]

Well I'm clearly in the minority, but yeah, absolutely. I love the illustrations and want to read the whole book. I think it's a great educational way to introduce a child to a more "adult" subject. No different than sex in my opinion. I want my daughter to know about it early on, with no confusion. I also want to teach her in a child appropriate way.

The book clearly states that it is for responsible adults, it's not pushing your 7 year old to try this and break the law. I am complete a marijuana supporter and can only hope that my daughter will grow up with a more open mind, as a result of early exposure to non mainstream opinions.

[Anna1345]

Although it is CRITICAL to talk to you kids about drugs openly and honestly, I don' tthink this book is a good way of doing it.