Smoking Pot

[kellygirl601]

How do you all feel about smoking pot?  My daughter (21) is on meds and smokes pot. It really upsets me but at the same time it is legal in certain states- not mine. She swears that her Dr. and therapist don't make a big deal of this. I would love to hear opinions on this. She swears it's the only thing that helps her anxiety.

Our objective is to better understand the struggles our child faces and to learn the skills to improve our relationship and provide a supportive environment and also improve on our own emotional responses, attitudes and effectiveness as a family leaders

[lbjnltx]

if she is doing it illegally then she doesn't need to be doing it regardless of anyone's personal views... .

[kellygirl601]

I'm just so overwhelmed and sick of it. She really thinks it's ok-and she was driving.

[.cup.car]

All weed's done is made me giggle and then walk to the store for a few bags of Doritos. Compare that behavior to what someone would exhibit if they had a drinking problem.

Driving high sucks though.

[qcarolr]

I have only smoked mj once when I was 20. I am a little obsessive about the rules or just a really low risk taker. From my experience with DD28 and mj:  she is not high, she is M E L L O W... .until she gets too much and gets paranoid. I am mostly naive about drugs - great when mind is in denial!

DD got her medical mj license a few years back for her migraines. When she first came home from her full-time homelessness (she was still gone more than half the time) she smoked every two hours - outside. Then it tapered. I could see the way it did ease her panic and anxiety. She was also on a couple for meds for the anxiety and for sleep. I was sharing this with my T and he asked me some questions. Several of his clients have shared this same response to mj. He wants them to stop and use just meds., they say mj works better with fewer side effects.

This gets undone when the use increases to regular use and paranoia symptoms emerge. DD claims she controls how much she uses to avoid this. Well, until she got back into meth, then the mj was to come off the high with less side effects. The big one that got her in lots of trouble (coming off) was raging and aggression. I think this was a big part of the things that led to her current jail time.

Oh, her DWAI in Feb 2012 - not alcohol. This was her medical mj impairment. I wasn't there so cannot know if this was cause of her appearing spaced out to the police. Her bf that was there says she had not smoked for more than 24 hours and she was not on anything else. There was no mj in the car and her pipe was in her backpack in the trunk.  Dd still believes her conviction was a mistake and she is innocent.

My biggest worry about mj is for my gd9 as she moves toward middle school. The research is showing such bad impact on children's brain development from mj.

qcr

[tristesse]

because it's illegal it can't be condoned, even if you were to perceive it as harmless. I wouldn't fight about it, because lets face it, with pwBPD, you get enough to fight about. But I would let her know that you will not bail her out of trouble should she get into any, and that you will not allow it to be in your house. Let her know that she is an adult and making the choice to do something that you don't approve of and is illegal, so if she insists on continuing, then she needs to keep it outside of  your home. I am not sure how she could argue with that, but Im sure my own BPDd would find a way.

Stay true to your beliefs and morals my friend, and hang in there.

[kellygirl601]

What is DWAI?

[HealingSpirit]

Medical MJ is legal here in California where I live.  Some people make a big deal out of it, and others think it is no big deal, like having an alcoholic drink.  A few years ago, I got myself a medical card to see if it helped my migraines and fibro pain.  I tried it maybe a dozen times over the course of a year and got frustrated because all it did was make me stoned, even from a single hit. I don't like that feeling.  I don't smoke and I didn't have experience in how much to use, as there are no "dosage instructions" on the plant buds.  I ended up giving my supply away to someone else who has a card after I had one of the worst migraines I've ever had AFTER smoking pot to stop the headache. It is NOT for me!

At least when I'm having severe pain, I know how many pain pills to take.  I just didn't like how they make me feel "drunk and loopy" so I was hoping pot would be better.  For me, it isn't.  A lot of very successful people I know smoke pot regularly.  Several of them have ADHD, and they say pot helps their symptoms and they swear by it.  Maybe it affects them differently?  It makes me feel like my brain is doing summersaults.  So, I don't like it.  I can't function on it and I would NEVER drive on it... .not even a tiny bit.  I don't see how others can function on it, but they do, so I suspect it affects everybody differently. 

The way I see it, our BPD offspring present so many challenges for us as parents, we need to look at each issue and decide if it is something we have influence over or not.  In the case of a legal adult using illegal drugs or alcohol to self-medicate, we have little to no control, so we'd be fighting a losing battle.  I think we CAN set limits that illegal drugs are NOT allowed in our homes or cars, but I don't think there is a way to stop someone from using them elsewhere.

It is frustrating and scary though.  Research shows that the younger a teenager is when they start using pot, the more likely they are to become addicted to it, and the more likely they are to "graduate" to harder drugs in the future.  If my DD17 started smoking pot, I would probably give her as much research as I could, and ask her T to talk to her about how dangerous it is for someone whose brain is still developing.  I'm just grateful she isn't interested in it!  (At least for now.) 

[theplotthickens]

If she is 21, you can give her your opinion, but can't really control her choices.  Intoxication of any type obviously "helps" with anxiety.  Your value system is yours, and you can give her counsel if she is open to it.  Medication of any type isn't a long-term solution for anxiety; she needs behavioral and cognitive therapy for it; is that what you are thinking? 

[qcarolr]

What is DWAI?

":)riving while abiilty impaired". In colorado it comes under the same statutes as DUI. The DWAI allows consequences for driving impaired by anything. It is a much lower standard of proof to be convicted. The consequences are just as harsh as the DUI. It is also easier to get a conviction on more subjective evidence.

qcr