Cannabis: Coming out the of Closet

By Chris Roach

Coming out to your parents about cannabis can be a daunting task whether you have just started smoking at the age of 18 or if you’re a grown adult with a completely normal career.

There is still a huge taboo surrounding cannabis and its use. The war on drugs has been around for under a hundred years, so most of our parents would have been subject to the constant propaganda blasted out from the media and governments around the world. Obviously since then hundreds of scientific experiments have been conducted which have proven the politicians wrong.

In the UK we are still subject to ridiculous articles from newspapers like the Daily Mail, who seem to have a vendetta against cannabis users and the constant reply from the home office about families being destroyed because of a plant. I’ll tell you what destroys a family, a secret being kept from each other when it should be discussed and debated at the very least. I’ve come up with five suggestions about why and how to come out about Cannabis use to your parents; hopefully this can help some of you.

1. They probably already know
   Lets be realistic, a lot of our parents would have grown up in the 50’s or 60’s, they know what weed smells like and they also can tell when you’ve just sprayed a ridiculous amount of deodorant on yourself. If they haven’t told you already that you smell, it’s probably because they are scared to bring up the issue in fear of how you’ll react. Bring up the conversation and explain the facts.
2. You know the facts, tell them
   We’ve most likely all seen The Union and could reel of facts about weed for a week, but use these facts to your advantage. Disprove all the stereotypes to them and hopefully they’ll open up with you.
3. Sit down and talk to them
   Most parents can be very understanding about these things. As long as you’re 18 and over and responsible you should be able to get away with getting your opinion in and not hearing ‘my house, my rules’. You’ll need patience and it’s very important that you don’t get frustrated, if they don’t accept some of your answers. Acting mature is always better than looking like a child.
4. Why would you not want to share part of your life?
   A lot of people I know don’t smoke weed everyday but enjoy it on the weekend instead of drinking. It would be a perfectly normal conversation to say to your parents, that you drank a bit to much last night. Baring the fact that you don’t get a hangover from smoking weed, wouldn’t it be great if you could just say, ‘I’m a bit too high, could you please make me something to eat’. It’s like the stoners dream.
5. Bring them to 4/20
   I advise you to bring them to 4/20 on April 20^th in Hyde Park and if that’s a bit top extreme show them articles from last year’s event, it was a wonderful event with plenty of good vibes the whole day. Show your parents, smoking cannabis doesn’t have to lead to violence or a life of crime, it can be a very social thing to and it can be conducted in a mature way.

Hope this helps some of you.

Peace,

Chris.

Chris Roach is a third year university student in London.