Q: My husband and I are not sure what we can do to help our daughter. She seems to be smoking a lot of marijuana these days.
When I asked her about it, she said that she used marijuana to help settle down. That might well be true. Our daughter has always been a bundle of nerves.
Of late, when she started to use marijuana regularly, she seemed to be more relaxed and certainly more comfortable when she popped into the house for a visit.
Read Also
Vintage power on display at Saskatchewan tractor pull
At the Ag in Motion farm show held earlier this year near Langham, Sask., a vintage tractor pull event drew pretty significant crowds of show goers, who were mostly farmers.
But I am worried. I know that marijuana is not supposed to be an addictive drug, at least that is what I was told years ago, but I cannot help but believe that it is harmful for our daughter and I would actually prefer that she stopped using it.
I could be wrong.
Can you give me a little guidance?
A: I suspect you have good cause to be concerned.
For starters, you are wrong about marijuana. It is an addictive drug. In the 1960s, the marijuana commonly smoked was weak and not all that intoxicating.
The marijuana people use today is more likely more pure, especially that which is being purchased at government outlets. It is stronger, more effective, and therefore more addicting. Our studies say that nine percent of the people who use marijuana are dependent on it.
That figure goes up to 17 percent for those who started using marijuana when they were teenagers in high school.
Be that as it may, your daughter is also right. A number of people using marijuana do so to wave off their otherwise propensities to anxiety.
Some use it to help them relax, to get rid of that ever present tension that otherwise interferes with daily activities.
Marijuana might give them a good night’s sleep that is otherwise compromised by insomnia. Tensions dissipate when they smoke a joint.
Other people use marijuana to give their drives for assertion a bit of a boost or to boost their self-confidence at social outings.
Of course the danger is that the user can become an addict.
Addictions have their own problems, including poor decision-making, engaging in risky behaviour, and making sacrificial trades to get and pay for the drug in question.
Your daughter will tell you that she is not addicted, that she can quit anytime she chooses.
She might be right, and there is a test.
You and she will know that she is at least overly dependent and perhaps addicted, if, when she stops using marijuana for a few days she becomes unusually irritable, unable to eat, even more anxious and experiences more insomnia. Given those symptoms, your next stop is your family doctor and a referral to your local addictions counsellor. If the four of you work together, including your daughter, you can see your way through various little disappointments and into her recovery.
If your daughter is not addicted, you can relax and enjoy your morning coffee.
